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III 







li 



I 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 



PATRIOTS IN 
THE MAKING 

WHAT AMERICA CAN LEARN 
FROM FRANCE AND GERMANY 



BY 
JONATHAN FRENCH SCOTT, Ph.D. 

UJ8TBUCT0B IN^HISTOBY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAS 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY THE 

HON. MYRON T. HERRICK 

FOBMEB AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1916 






COPTBIGHT, 1916, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANYi 



1/ 



St 



Printed in the United States of America 

NOV 27 1916 

©Cl.A4466'3'i 



TO MY FATHER 

AUSTIN SCOTT 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



FOEEWORD 

This book was not begun with the idea of teaching 
a lesson, but rather with the object of showing some- 
thing of the relationship that has long existed in 
France and Germany between the school and the na- 
tional consciousness. In both these countries educa- 
tion has long been used as a political instrument. 
Prussia perceived its possibilities after the battle of 
Jena ; France realized its value after Sedan. Both na- 
tions have employed the school to mold the mind of 
rising generations to a preconceived type of patriot- 
ism. The significance of the psychology thus formed 
is revealing itself in the present war. 

The experience of these countries ought not to be 
disregarded by the United States. After her crush- 
ing defeat in the Franco-German War, France saw 
clearly the danger of a blind, boastful patriotism 
founded on ignorance of national conditions. This 
sort of patriotism led to over-confidence, unreadiness, 
chauvinism and disaster. Hence France founded the 
preparedness movement, which she undertook after 
the war, on an intelligent, critical patriotism, care- 
fully developed through education. Only thus did it 
seem possible to make adequate preparedness perma- 
nent. The lesson of this should not be lost on 
Americans. 

vii 



FOREWOED 

On the other hand it must be admitted that there 
has been a tendency, both in the French and German 
schools, to magnify nationalism and to develop an- 
tagonism toward other countries. True, the influ- 
ence of this has been partly offset, in France at least, 
by certain humanitarian teachings which found their 
way into the schools during the last quarter-century ; 
but the tendency to an intensification of the princi- 
ple of nationality remained predominant. Our own 
schools have not been free from instruction of this 
sort; but it behooves us in future to avoid such 
teachings. To draw the line between an education 
that makes for proper patriotism and one that makes 
for narrow nationalism may not be easy, but it can 
be done if careful attention is given to the problem. 
True Americanism should pave the way through edu- 
cation to that mutual understanding among the na- 
tions which alone can form the basis of permanent 
peace. 

I am happy to acknowledge the assistance which I 
have received from many persons in the preparation 
of this work. To the Hon. Myron T. Ilerrick, who 
has kindly consented to write the introduction, I am 
most grateful. I am also greatly indebted to Pro- 
fessor Paul Monroe, of Teachers' College, who has 
helped me with advice and criticism; to Professor 
Herbert A. Kenyon, of the University of Michigan, 
who has generously gone over all the manuscript with 
me ; to Professor W. A. McLaughlin, of the same in- 
stitution; to Professors Davis and Billetdoux, of 
Eutgers College, and to Mrs. W. H. Wait, of Ann 
Arbor, who have given me valuable suggestions. 

viii 



FOREWORD 

I owe much also to various members of my family, 
especially to my father, who has helped me particu- 
larly in the preparation of the chapter on the teach- 
ing of patriotism in Germany. To him this little 
book is gratefully dedicated. 

Jonathan F. Scott 

Ann Arbor, Michigan 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTKB PAGE 

I. Historical Sketch: French Education as 

National Self-Expression ... 3 

II. Molding the Psychology of Defense . 24 

III. The Inculcation of Hostility Toward 

Germany 63 

IV. The Teaching of Loyalty to the Republic 86 
V. Contending Forces in French Education 123 

VI. Patriotism in German Education . . 155 

VII. The Lesson for America .... 193 

VIII. Military Training in Europe . . . 217 

IX. Conclusions 244 

Appendix I. The Military Value of a Psychology 

OF Patriotism 259 

Appendix II. A Day^s Work in the Swiss Army 261 



INTEODUCTION 

Notwithstanding that more than two years of the 
most terrible war in all history have passed, the 
American imagination as yet has failed to grasp the 
full lesson of the tragedy. To the average American, 
Europe is like a stage on which is being played a 
horrifying melodrama that will presently come to 
some happy end. That he may himself ever become 
an actor on such a stage, rather than a mere specta- 
tor, he finds it difficult to conceive. The old unseeing 
faith in our national isolation still affects his think- 
ing. 

That isolation is no longer so complete or secure 
as once it was. By the extension of our possessions 
to new contacts with other powers, by advance in 
methods of communication, and the growth of new 
commercial and political relations, we have passed 
from the period of our exclusiveness to full mem- 
bership in the concert of world powers. 

But, while our national position has changed, our 
national mechanism has not been altered to confoiTa 
to the new conditions. Even in the midst of a world 
at war, with the certainty of resulting change as the 
one certain thing in view, we are clinging obstinately 
to old method, old tradition, trusting to some lucky 
opportunism, rather than trying to determine our 
own future and preparing to meet in full readiness 

xiii 



INTRODUCTION 

the issues that are still obscure. As a nation we 
seem to be groping aimlessly in the dark, rather than 
courageously attempting to find the light. 

The course that the United States has followed in 
these eventful years has not added to the security 
of its position in international society; there is rea- 
son to doubt whether we have now a single friend 
among the nations of Europe, and it is evident that 
we have lost favor with at least one of our neigh- 
bors in the western hemisphere. We have to realize 
that as a nation we are standing alone at a time when 
the balance of the world has been upset and the 
whole future made obscure. Few, indeed, want to see 
our country involved in the struggle that is destroy- 
ing civilization abroad, but it is not hard to compre- 
hend the difficulty and danger of keeping an even 
course in these days of perplexity and doubt. 

That the defects of the national structure have not 
gone unnoticed is evidenced in the spontaneous and 
general movement for ** preparedness. '' Growing 
out of the sudden realization that our army and navy 
are quite inadequate, under modern methods of war- 
fare, to protect the country against aggression, and 
inspired by the thought that a nation which is worth 
having is worth protecting, this movement has de- 
veloped into a serious effort to coordinate all sources 
of American strength — economic, social, political — 
and to apply them to the promotion of American in- 
terests everywhere and the advancement of mankind. 
The United States has advantages in natural re- 
sources, in situation, above all in character of popula- 
tion, that entitle her to a prominent place in the world. 

xiv 



INTRODUCTION 

We have all the parts of a great national mechanism ; 
to assemble those parts, to fire the living mechanism 
with the high ideals of its founders, is the grand 
object of true preparedness. 

If long years of peace and prosperity have made 
us somewhat forgetful of the duties we owe to the 
country that has made us prosperous, if differences 
of race and language have obscured for a while our 
common Americanism, it is time now to sink our sel- 
fishness and join our hearts and our energies for 
the common service of the nation. A democracy like 
ours is powerless except as it draws on the united 
strength of its citizens ; they are both the government 
and the governed, to whom every question comes for 
final answer, on whom every burden falls. 

Every boy in Europe knows, as soon as he knows 
anything, that he owes one certain, fixed debt — 
service to country. He learns that lesson in his home 
and in his school; it is the atmosphere in which he 
lives. 

Here in America we have neglected the teaching 
of that lesson. Life has been easy and pleasant for 
us in this new, rich land, and in the fifty years since 
the Civil ^Yar settled our last great national ques- 
tions we have tended to look on government as a 
thing remote and apart, that would go on somehow 
whether we gave it any attention or not. The col- 
lapse of civilization abroad has shocked us from our 
self -absorption, and the whole nation is stirred by 
a regenerative force like that which quickened the 
hearts of the men of 76 and of '61. 

If this new spirit in American life is not to evapo- 

XV 



INTEODUCTION 



^j 



rate in inconsequential hysteria it must be transmit- 
ted to the generation of young Americans now grow- 
ing up in school and college. They should be taught, 
as the youth of France and Germany have learned, 
that in war or in peace the first duty of citizens is to 
country. So may our citizens of tomorrow be more 
ardent Americans; so may they come nearer to the 
realization of American ideals; so may they make of 
America in fullest measure that which it was estab- 
lished to be — the foremost exponent of popular gov- 
ernment, a refuge for the oppressed of every race, 
an inspiration through all the world to those who 
seek liberty, justice and equality. | 

Myeon T. Herbick 

Cleveland, Ohio, July 31, 1916 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL SKETCH: FRENCH EDUCATION AS 
NATIONAL SELF-EXPRESSION 

Feom time immemorial national ideals and 
purposes have found expression in education. 
Warlike states have inspired their youth with 
the glories of military achievement; peaceful 
countries have taught the blessings of order and 
calm. Religion, love of beauty, reverence for 
the past, the desire for material prosperity — 
all these forces and many others, where they 
have been dominant in the lives of nations, have 
given color to national education, as the tree 
lends its hue to the chameleon clinging to 
its branches. Thus in ambitious, courageous, 
brutal Sparta, lads were torn from their homes 
at an early age, and brought up in public bar- 
racks, there to be toughened, hardened and 
made ready for the emergencies of warfare. 
Athens, too, had to train her young men to be 
soldiers, but in this esthetic and pleasure-lov- 
ing state it was literature, music and gymnas- 



3 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tics which helped to prepare the son of the 
cultured Athenian gentleman for ^Hhe rational 
enjoyment of leisure hours.'' In China, until 
recent years, love of order and stability made 
education primarily a recapitulation of the 
past. Every highly developed country, though 
not unresponsive to the general influences of 
civilization, has given to its system of instruc- 
tion a distinctively national character. 

In France education has been powerfully af- 
fected by the vicissitudes of French history. 
At one time it has worn the dress of a courtier, 
at another the garb of a monk, at another the 
uniform of a soldier. Political and social de- 
velopments seemingly far removed from the 
training of children have profoundly affected 
their instruction. A brief survey of French 
education from the time of Louis XIV to the 
present day will serve to show how instruction 
has responded to the influences dominating the 
life of the nation. 

It was the absolute monarchy of the Ancient 
Regime that indirectly brought about what Pro- 
fessor S. C. Parker has termed the ''dancing- 
master" education. Shortly after the middle 
of the seventeenth century, royalty had virtu- 
ally completed the process of subjugating the 

4 



HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

aristocracy, once so powerful and independent, 
rivaling even the king himself in splendor. 
Louis XIV signalized his victory by the estab- 
lishment of his brilliant court at Versailles; 
here he could have the greater and lesser lords 
under his eye, forestalling any possible insubor- 
dination, while at the same time their luster in- 
creased his own. The nobles, for their part, 
sought eagerly the favor of the king, finding it 
an honor to stand behind him at table or to 
hand him his nightshirt when he retired. The 
fighting cavaliers of ancient days had been 
transformed into fawning courtiers. 

Thus there developed that extravagant, cere- 
monious, yet highly competitive court life, the 
pride of the Ancient Regime, destined to perish 
in the wrath of the Revolution. To gain the 
favor of the king the nobles must ingratiate 
themselves with the monarch or with his power- 
ful satellites. To ingratiate themselves they 
must follow certain carefully prescribed forms ; 
for the king was a stickler for etiquette and set 
the fashion of a rigid and elaborate ceremonial. 

For a career at court, therefore, a careful 
training became necessary. ^^ There was then 
..." says Taine, "sl certain way of walking, 
of sitting down, of saluting, of picking up a 

5 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

glove, of holding a fork, of tendering any ar- 
ticle, in fine, a complete mimicry, which chil- 
dren had to be taught at a very early age, in 
order that habit might become a second na- 
ture, and this conventionality formed so impor- 
tant an item in the life of men and women in 
aristocratic circles that the actors of the present 
day, with all their study, are scarcely able to 
give us an idea of it." ^ It is easy to under- 
stand how an enfeebled aristocracy, fitted only 
to ornament the elaborate gardens and rococo 
palaces at Versailles, should come to look upon 
the dancing-master as the ''fulcrum of educa- 
tion." 

His teachings did not indeed comprise the 
sum total of instruction, nor did they reach all 
the children of France. Many of the people 
were illiterate; others looked entirely to the 
priests and monks for what little learning they 
received. Even the little aristocrats, worldly 
as they were, were subject to a certain amount 
of religious and intellectual education. But 
the dancing-master was conspicuous as a prac- 
tical teacher. The training that he gave, use- 

^ Taine : The Ancient Regime, p. 15 ; see also Parker, 
S. C. : The History of Modern Elementary Education, Chap. 
VIII. 

6 



HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

less as it might be to tlie world at large, was 
nevertheless of high utilitarian value to the 
well-boni boy or girl, since it paved the way to 
social success, to pensions, advancement and 
power at court. 

Such was the spirit of France under the 
Ancient Regime and such the education that 
reflected that spirit. In the early nineteenth 
century, however, the Ancient Eegime had 
passed and new forces dominated the state. 
Disillusioned by the excesses and failures of the 
Revolution, France longed for the establish- 
ment of security and order at home. At the 
same time, intoxicated by her military suc- 
cesses abroad, she thirsted for further con- 
quests. ^'AMiat the French want," said the 
cynical but clear-sighted Napoleon, ^'is glory 
and the satisfaction of their vanity ; as for Lib- 
erty, of that they have no conception.'^ Thus 
the spirit of the era centered around the person- 
ality of the great conqueror, who could turn 
the dreams of the French people into realities. 
It was militaristic and imperialistic, but at 
the same time characterized by orderliness 
and constructive statesmanship in home af- 
fairs. 

From this background developed the Na- 

7 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

poleonic system of education. All instruction 
was centralized in the Imperial University, 
with a grand master at the head, whom Napo- 
leon thought to control. The Emperor aimed to 
make himself loved and obeyed in all the 
schools, securing loyalty to his despotism and 
to his dynasty.^ In the secondary schools 
known as lycceSy discipline was at once mili- 
tary and monarchical.^ The pupils were divided 
into companies of twenty-five, in each of which 
were a sergeant and four corporals. All ex- 
ercises were opened with the roll of drums. 
Punishments were severe; even for slight of- 
fenses the boys might be imprisoned. In the 
primary schools the children were taught that 
**to honor and serve our ICmperor is to honor 
and serve God Himself."^ All instruction 

^ Aiilard, A. : Napoleon ier et le Monopole Universitaire, 
p. 3G4. "II voulait fonder son depotisme sur les ames, 
et . . . une instruction publique fortement centralisee et 
donnee par TEtat, lui parut le plus efficace moyen pour 
fagonner les ames." 

2 Ibid., p. 93. 

'Quoted in Fournier: Napoleon (Bourne, ed.), p. 409. 
"To the question what was to be thought of those who should 
fail to perform their obligations toward the Emperor, the 
catechism made answer: 'According to Saint Paul they 
would sin against the ordinances of God Himself and draw 
down upon themselves eternal damnation.' '' 

8 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

was to rest upon ^^tlie precepts of religion, of 
loyalty, and of obedience. ' ' ^ 

In such fashion the ideals and purposes of im- 
perialism were implanted in the hearts of 
the young. In such fashion instruction was 
adapted to carry out the aims of the day. 

Since the fall of Napoleon I various forces 
have engaged in a bitter struggle for control 
over the national life of France and hence for 
control over national education. Sometimes 
this struggle has smoldered in the embers of 
obstruction and resentment ; again it has burst 
forth into the flames of hot political controversy 
and even open warfare. The spirit of the An- 
cient Regime, enfeebled and injured as it had 
been, did not give up the ghost during the pe- 
riod of the Revolution and the First Empire, but 
strove again, in the uncertain political atmos- 
phere of the remainder of the century, to re- 
gain something of its ancient fullness of life. 
The French love of glory and the national ten- 
dency to hero-worship have fought against the 
French devotion to reason. The monarchical 
principle has striven to assert itself against 
the growing spirit of democracy. 

Catholicism has warred against the articles 

^ Arnold, M. : Popular Education in France, p. 37. 

9 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of faith proclaimed by the men of the great 
Revolution. In its struggle with the Revolu- 
tion the Church has, in a general way, asso- 
ciated itself with the monarchical, as against 
the republican, cause; but the alliance between 
throne and altar has not been so close as it was 
before 1789. The union has been one of policy 
rather than of true affection; for the Church 
has ceased to be Gallican and has become Ultra- 
montane. Its loyalty has been to Rome rather 
than to Paris or Versailles. During the past 
century, then, the establishment of monarchical 
or imperial government in France did not mean 
the complete triumph of Catholicism, nor did it 
signalize the complete downfall of the princi- 
ples of the Revolution, for royalty was never 
able to rid itself entirely of these. National 
education, therefore, did not don again all the 
ecclesiastical and courtly garments that it had 
worn under the Grand Monarque and his suc- 
cessors, but appeared for more than sixty-five 
years in a garb partly clerical, partly secular, 
till finally it was forced to wear no other uni- 
form than that of the laical, republican state. 

Nevertheless during the period of the Res- 
toration, lasting — with the Napoleonic interrup- 
tion — from 1814 to 1830, it seemed to the de- 

10 



HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

luded that the Bourbons were coming into their 
own again. Even before nltra-royalism as- 
cended the throne in 1824, in the person of the 
once dashing and always stubborn Charles X, 
there began a pseudo-renaissance of the An- 
cient Regime, which increased the influence of 
courtiers and clerics. Naturall}^ enough, edu- 
cation took on a coloring more distinctly ec- 
clesiastical than in the days of Napoleon. 
Priests and monks, flocking back to their posts, 
took up the task of molding the mind of the 
young to loj^alty toward the Church and the 
legitimate monarchy. Warmed to the fight by 
the sunshine of royal favor, they attacked the 
monopoly of the Napoleonic University, un- 
der whose baleful influence, so Chateaubriand 
claimed, the youth of France were becoming ir- 
religious, debauched and contemptuous of the 
domestic virtues.^ This monopoly they did not 
succeed in destroying; but they brought it un- 
der clerical control.^ In general it seemed as if 
the youth of France were to be made ^^as royal- 
ist as Charles X, as good Catholics as Saint 
Louis, as orthodox as Bossuet." ^ 

^ Buisson, etc. : La Lutte Scolaire, p. 43. 
- Ibid., pp. 51 ff. 
» Ibid., p. 74. 

11 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Nevertheless the leaven of democracy was 
working, and the anger of the bourgeoisie was 
growing. The July Ordinances brought the 
downfall of Charles X; and Louis Philippe of 
the House of Orleans took possession of the 
royal armchair, to remain until 1848. Though 
an advance along the road of democracy, 
the new monarchy by no means marked the 
triumph of liberty, equality and fraternity. 
Though the atmosphere was Voltairian, there 
wag no thought of giving free play to the forces 
of irreligion or of turning over the control of 
the state to extreme republicans. In fact the 
reign was a '^ ^just mean^ between democracy 
and legitimism."^ Hence that great educa- 
tional measure, the law of 1833, did not estab- 
lish the entire system of public education which 
the Eevolution had projected; nor did it de- 
stroy completely the influence of clericalism 
over the school. It did, however, place on the 
communes, and indirectly on the state, the re- 
sponsibility for maintaining primary schools,^ 
though only the children of the very poor were 
to be taught gratuitously. The number of 

^ Cambridge Modern History, Vol. X, p. 479. 
2 Guerard : French Civilization in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, p. 234. 

12 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

lay teachers — ^^ wretched little pedants, '^ Mon- 
talembert called them — was thus increased, 
though parish priests shared with civil officials 
the supervision of state schools,^ in which, also, 
was to be given religious instruction.^ The 
law tended toward the democratization of edu- 
cation, toward the extension of the civil au- 
thority in this field, at the expense of the 
Church. But it was a compromise, and being 
a compromise, it served to buttress the July 
Monarchy.^ 

The years that followed the do^mfall of 
Louis Philippe in the Revolution of 1848 wit- 
nessed not only the development of the power 
of Napoleon III, but also the growth of clerical 
influence. The little man with the glorious 

^ Cambridge Modern Histoiy, Vol. X, p. 490. 

- Compayre : History of Pedagogy, p. 524. 

^Guizot, father of the act, believed that " ^the hopes of 
religion, together with the enlightenment given by a system 
of instiniction controlled by religious belief, would be the 
best means of arresting moral degeneration and the dangers 
to which the revolutionary classCvS, and in consequence of 
class demands, the whole of society, were exposed/ " Cam- 
bridge Modem History, Vol. X, p. 490. But "these national 
schools must respect that religious liberty which the nation 
professed. The wishes of parents were to be ascertained 
and followed in all that concerned their children's attend- 
ance at the religious instruction." Arnold : Popular Educa- 
tion in France, p. 52. 

13 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 






name, imitating the policy of his admired un 
cle, planned to use the clergy to buttress his 
throne. Favors were scattered among them 
with lavish hand and it was not hard to under- 
stand why *^the men in black had grown so 
amiable.''^ Furthermore, the bloody insur- 
rection of June, 1848, had brought a reaction 
against Socialism and toward religious ortho- 
doxy. The frightened bourgeoisie, realizing to 
what dangers novel theories might lead, were 
inclined to take refuge under the protecting 
arm of Mother Church, and listened more will- 
ingly than in earlier days to the pleas of th 
clerics for *' liberty" of education. 

Out of this atmosphere developed the reac- 
tionary Loi Falloiix and other educationaU 
measures of the new era. '' 'Three facts,' says* 
M. Liard, 'are bound together like the terms 
of a syllogism in the short public career of M. 
de Falloux. The closing of the national work- 
shops causes the upheaval of June. The Daysl 
of June strike the bourgeoisie with terror. The 
terrified bourgeoisie vote the law of 1850 as ai 
measure of social preservation.' "- The Loti 

1 Cambridge Modern Histoiy, Vol. XI, pp. 205-296. 

2 Guerard : French Civilization in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, p. 235. 

14 



I- 

1 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Falloux abolished the Napoleonic University, 
whose power in the field of education the Cath- 
olics had long attacked. ^'The bishops were 
ex-officio members of the academic councils, and 
their authority therein was really greater than 
that of the rectors themselves. Catholic schools 
could be endowed and subsidized by the local 
authorities and by the State. ... In elemen- 
tary education the letter of affiliation ... of 
a friar or a nun was accepted instead of a quali- 
fying certificate."^ In spite of the fact that 
the right to grant degrees still remained a state 
monopoly,- the Church might w^ell rejoice over 
its increased power to influence the minds and 
hearts of the youth of France. 

Directly as well as indirectly the school was 
used to fortify the position of Napoleon III. 
During the years 1851 to 1856 every teacher was 
obliged to swear allegiance to him.^ Children 
were to be brought up in loyalty to the Emperor 
as they had once been brought up in loyalty to 
his uncle. Thus the school was once more called 
to the service of the throne and the altar; and 
the influence of a large proportion of the gQw- 

1 Ibid., pp. 236-237. 

2 Ibid., p. 237. 
»Ibid. 

15 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

eration reared under such auspices survived to 
trouble the anti-imperial, anti-clerical states- 
men of the Third Republic. 

The ideals and aims of the government under 
which France has now lived for more than 
forty-five years have been very different from 
those of the Second Empire. The tragedy of 
the Franco-German War at once saddened and 
awakened the nation. Mourning the loss of its 
ancient glory, the country nevertheless set to 
work sternly and resolutely to recuperate its 
weakened strength and to prepare to defend it- 
self adequately against another possible inva- 
sion. Many patriots, too, dreamed of revanche 
and looked fonvard to the day when Alsace 
and Lorraine should be brought back again to 
the mother country. If their hopes in that di- 
rection have not been fulfilled they have found 
cause for pride in that successful colonial policy 
on which France has embarked and which has 
done so much to restore the prestige of former 
days. The vigor and the ambitions of the 
French people did not die in 1871. 

But the state has not had merely to gird up 
its loins for battle and for conquest ; it has had 
as well the task of establishing on a firm basis 
the republican ideal. It has had to complete the 

16 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

work of the Eevolution of 1789. It has had to 
mate the ideals of liberty, equality and fra- 
ternity mean more than they had meant during 
nearly three-quarters of the nineteenth century. 
The Republic has taken Reason as its guide and 
has attempted sincerely to live by Reason. 
Hence it has had to combat the national ten- 
dency of the French people to hero-worship, and 
has had to guard against the restoration of 
some one of the dynasties formerly governing 
France, as well as against the exaltation of a 
new dictator. It has had to contend against the 
Catholic Church, which would have the people 
live not by the light of Reason, but by that of 
spiritual authority. On the other hand, while 
standing for the principles of the French Revo- 
lution it has yet had to curb the excesses of the 
revolutionary spirit. The w^orld has just begun 
to realize how well the Third Republic has car- 
ried its burdens, how zealously it has set itself 
to the fulfillment of its ideals. 

The educational system of the country did not 
at first respond to these new forces which were 
beginning to dominate the life of the nation. 
For more than a decade the school remained 
almost entirely in the hands of the Church, in- 
culcating in the rising generation those beliefs 

17 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

and ideals for which the Church stood. In 
the early eighties, however, the government 
usurped (or shall we say ^'resumed"?) control 
over education, and in later years completed 
the work of making instruction almost a state 
monopoly. For some thirty-five years, then, 
the school has attempted to mold the mind of 
France to an acceptance of the principles and 
purposes of the Third Republic. There has not, 
indeed, been entire agreement in regard to these 
principles and purposes; the pacificism which 
was a natural outcome of certain of the theories 
of the Revolution, for example, has conflicted 
with the nationalism which was a natural out- 
growth of the Franco-Gennan War. Liberty 
of thought has excluded complete uniformity in 
political instruction. Nevertheless it may be 
emphatically asserted that the school of the 
Third Republic has been a powerful and effec- 
tive instrument in inculcating in the oncoming 
generations of Frenchmen sentiments of pa- 
triotism and loyalty. 

Thus education in France from the time of 
Louis XIV to the present day has experienced 
changes corresponding to changes in the gov- 
ernment and ideals of the state. Under the 
influence of the court life at Versailles instruc- 

18 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

tion for the upper classes and for those who 
imitated the upper classes was characterized by 
a training in etiquette and carefully prescribed 
forms. Under Napoleon I it became militaris- 
tic and imperialistic, aiming to inculcate ad- 
miration for, and loyalty to, the conqueror. 
During the sixty-five years following his fall, 
when the country was at heart uncertain as to 
what government and what social forces it 
would definitely support, it responded now to 
Catholicism and monarchy or imperialism, now 
in a tentative way to the principles of the Revo- 
lution of 1789. Finally it has come definitely 
to mirror the policies of the Third Republic. 

I do not mean to imply that education has 
been shaped entirely by national forces. There 
are, of course, certain subjects in the curricu- 
lum which remain comparatively unaffected by 
political and social \4cissitudes. Furthermore 
the tendency of a dominant type of instruction 
is to reflect the principal characteristics of the 
whole civilization from which it originates. 
Thus education in the Middle Ages was prima- 
rily religious, with a goodly proportion of ath- 
letic and military training for the fighting noble. 
At a later date the Renaissance, Reformation 
and Counter-Refoi-mation united to emphasize 

19 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

the teaching of Latin and Greek; for the clas- 
sics met the religions, cultural, and certain of 
the utilitarian needs of the time. In a practical, 
commercial, bourgeois age there \^dll be strong 
pressure for industrial and vocational educa- 
tion. The school, then, is not bounded entirely 
by national lines. 

Furthermore, tradition and custom have an 
important influence on education. By reason of 
their power a given type of instruction tends to 
survive long after the forces through which it 
originated have ceased to be vital. Thus it was 
that the classics maintained in the nineteenth 
centuiy a position in the English public schools 
entirely disproportionate to their value to so- 
ciety. English conservatism magnified their 
importance. Similarly a new social force may 
knock for a long time at the door of the school 
before being allowed to enter. Every student 
of recent educational history knows how hard it 
has been for the secular, scientific spirit to 
affect the curriculum in any marked degree. 
Every thoughtful observer of contemporary 
conditions knows of the struggle now going on 
in the United States to free the school from the 
influence of tradition and to adjust it to what 
are believed to be the needs of today. The 

20 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

school system of every country lias been encum- 
bered with sun^ivals. 

With the growih of national consciousness, 
however, the inJSuence of custom and conserva- 
tism over the school system has been lessened. 
Education has tended to become a political in- 
strument, the study of it almost a branch of 
political science. This is especially true of Ger- 
many, to whose efSciency education has con- 
tributed to a degree not fully appreciated even 
yet by the rest of the world ; but it is also true 
of France. Thus Jules Ferry, the powerful 
prime minister who did so much to wrest con- 
trol of the school from the hands of the Church, 
held instruction to be *'an affair of state, a 
public service." ^ His view, according to a re- 
cent writer, was that the state should be ''the 
supreme intelligence which ought to think for 
the entire nation and to form minds according 
to a tjipe proposed by itself." - This ideal has, 
in some measure, been realized. 

Hence it follows that a study of education 
under the Third Republic furnishes an excel- 
lent approach to an understanding of the na- 

^Vaujany: L'Ecole Primaire en France sous la Troi- 
sieme Republique, p. 2. 
*Ibid. 

21 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tional psychology of modern France ; ^ for the 
national consciousness expresses itself through 
the school as perhaps through no other insti- 
tution. From the school, therefore, far more 
than from the opinions of individual writers, 
one can learn what the factors dominant in the 
life of the country really are. The student of 
social psychology must be careful, however, not 
to attribute to national ideals and purposes 
elements in the educational system which are 
really due to the general influences of modern 
civilization or to those of custom and tradition. I 

The little textbooks of the French schools, 
then, are extremely significant. They are not i 
written solely for the torture of rebellions * 
youth, nor simply to prepare the child to earn 
a living or enjoy rationally the leisure hours 
of later years. They form a part of that edu- 
cational renaissance whose significance it is as 

^ Similarly the history of education furnishes an excellent 
but much ne2:lected approach to an understandinx:^ of the 
Zeitgeist. If education reflects the dominant characterLstics 
of the civilization or civilizations from which it <rrows, then 
it follows that from a study of a pven ty])e of education 
one is in a position to learn something: of the underlying 
factors of the civilization from which it sprinsrs. The 
method must be used guardedly, however, because of certain 
limitations, especially because of the sui-vivals with which 
education is always encumbered. 

22 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

important for the historian to grasp, as it is 
for him to understand the diplomacy and the 
preparations for military defense that preceded 
the present conflict. Though these books have 
been the work of individual writers and have 
been stamped by indi^ddual opinions, they have 
on the whole safeguarded the dominant ideals 
and gained support for the dominant purposes 
of the Third Republic. From them, then, we 
can learn something of national attitudes. From 
them, too, we can learn something of the 
part played by education in fortifying France 
against internal and external crises. They have 
been used to mold the psychology of the na- 
tion. 



CHAPTER n 
MOLDING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

1. THE LESSON OF 1870 AND THE NATIONALIZATION 
OF EDUCATION 

In the pleasant, prosperous days that pre- 
ceded the present conflict the average American 
was apt to judge France by Paris and Paris by 
the boulevards. He thought of the French peo- 
ple as frothy, sentimental, vivacious, fond of 
wine and song, only too fond of the third mem- 
ber of the famous trio. The courage of daring 
he might indeed attribute to them, but not 
the greater heroism of sustained effort. Cjmi- 
cism, pessimism, irreligion and contempt for 
virtue he believed to be characteristic not 
merely of the frequenters of cafes, but of a 
large number of writers and men in public life 
as well. ^^ France is decadent," was the dic- 
tum of the American traveler returning from 
his three months ' tour of Europe, bringing with 
him, perhaps, memories of his own contribu- 
tions to that decadence. 

24 






MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

The great war, however, has revealed a new 
France. When the call came her sons were 
ready, grimlv resolved to stem the great Teu- 
tonic tidal wave before it engulfed Paris. 
Quietly and soberly they have undertaken as 
a simple duty the task of driving the invader 
from French soil. They have borne without 
flinching the monotonously awful strain of 
trench fighting. They have supplemented the 
dash and daring inherited from ancient days by 
a power of endurance, the depth of which has 
not yet been completely tested. If the com- 
manders have proved themseVes capable of 
handling the great problems presented by the 
German attack, the common soldier has shown 
an intelligence and a loyalty which have moved 
the world to wonder. While England has been 
striving to remove the incubus of national ig- 
norance and to arouse the lower classes to a 
realization of the danger of a disruption of her 
empire, France has presented a united front, 
her masses seriously conscious of the task that 
lies before them, and deteimined at all costs 
to perfonn that task loyally and efficiently. 
France has demonstrated that a democracy can 
handle effectively the problem of national de- 
fense. 

25 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Very different, this, from the conduct of the 
nation in 1870. Then all was noise, bustle and 
confusion, the prelude to a great disaster. 
^^Have arrived at Belfort," telegraphed Gen- 
eral Michel July 21. '^ Can't find my bri- 
gade; can't find the general of the Division. 
What shall I do? Don't know where my regi- 
ments are." ^ Soldiers were transported from 
Metz or Strassburg to Brittany, even to Al- 
giers, only to be returned to their regiments 
close to the points from which they had started. 
Staff officers were frequently out of touch with 
the army and had little or no practical knowl- 
edge of their duties.^ 

In contrast with the efficiency and intelli- 
gence of the Prussians, common soldiers as 
well as great commanders, the ignorance and 
stupidity of the French were appalling. To 
ignorance, more than to any other cause, Gam- 
betta later attributed the disasters of the tragic 
year; nor was he the only one to realize at that 
time the baleful effects of unintelligence.^ The 

^ Quoted in Hazen : Europe Since 1S15, p. 295. 

- Cambridge Modern Histoiy, Vol. XI, p. 582. 

* Gambetta : Discours et Plaidoyers Politiques, Vol. II, 
p. 252. "Eh bien ! dominant toutes les autres causes de nos 
defaillances, de nos desastres, il y a Tignorance, cette igno- 
rance particuliere, cette ignorance double, qui est propre a 

26 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

war party in Paris who precipitated the bung- 
ling, frotliy France of the Second Empire into 
conflict with the highly trained Prussia of the 
man of blood and iron, committed an act of 
terrible rashness and folly. 

"Whence came the dogged and disciplined 
spirit of resistance, characteristic of the France 
of today? First of all it must have developed 
from the natural reaction of a proud and sen- 
sitive nation against the tragedy of her over- 
whelming defeat. Napoleon III, sitting dis- 
pirited and dejected in front of a roadside cot- 
tage, on the morning after the battle of Sedan, 
a prisoner in the hands of the Prussians, epit- 
omized the departed glory of the country over 
which he had ruled. That glory must be re- 
gained by the Third Eepublic, since the Empire 
had failed to maintain it. Sadly and wearily, 
therefore, but with true-hearted determination, 
the nation set to work to rid herself of internal 
weaknesses and to retrieve her position in the 

la France"; Breal: Quelques Mots sur Plnstruction Pub- 
lique en France (published 1872), p. 122. "Lre courage de 
la nation s^est montre tel qu'on Tavait connu en tous les 
temps; mais on a ete effraye de trouver une telle inex- 
perience de pensee, un si grand desarroi intellectuel. II 
est penible de dire, mais il fant avoir le courage de dire 
que les Allemands nous trouvaient nai'fs." 

27 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

world. Fear of another attack from her pow- 
erful neighbor stimulated her resoution to make 
herself strong and ever watchful. The Treaty 
of Frankfort in 1871 had cost her five billion 
francs and the better part of two of her most 
valuable provinces. The results of another suc- 
cessful invasion would be too terrible to con- 
template. Hence as a first means to strengthen 
herself and insure her safety she established 
by law (1872) a five-year period of compul- 
sory military service for all but certain ex- 
empted classes of her citizens. Never again, 
she determined, would she be found wanting in 
military efficiency as she had been in 1870. 

Nevertheless it must not be taken for granted 
that the memory of defeat and of its conse- 
quences, with the anticipatoiy fear of another 
disaster, would of themselves have sufficiently 
sustained the national will in preparing the 
country adequately for defense against possible 
aggression. The laws enforcing compulsory 
military service have borne hard upon the peo- 
ple. When the bill of 1913, increasing the pe- 
riod from two years to three,^ was introduced, 

^ The law of 1889 reduced the tenii of active service to 
three years; that of 1905 lowered it to two, though exemp- 
tions were abolished. 

28 



4 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

it met with rancorous opposition from Social- 
ists, from certain thoughtful men of the edu- 
cated classes, and even from many of those ac- 
tually serv^ing in the army, who looked on the 
increase as an almost intolerable oppression.^ 
Li a democracy such burdens are borne only 
with difficulty, and as the memories of the loss 
of Alsace-Lorraine receded further and further 
into the past, as prosperity brought comfort 
and carelessness, it would not have been sur- 
prising if the country had thrown off a large 
part of its burden of military preparedness 
with the accompanying taxation. The renais- 
sance of the national spirit under the Third Ee- 
public has been her great safeguard against 
this danger; and in this renaissance it is not 
too much to say that education has been the 
chief factor. 

Confidence in education as a means of re- 
generating the national life followed hard upon 
the heels of the disasters of the War of 1870. 
Gambetta, advocating compulsory military 
service and a more rigorous application of the 

^ "The Three Years' Bill in France," Living Age, for July 
26, 1913, Vol. 278, pp. 245-248. "The great bulk of 
Frenchmen," says the writer of this article, "are in a mood 
which a gust might turn against the national duty at this 
moment." 

29 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

national sovereignty, placed above these ^^an 
education truly national, that is to say, an edu- 
cation imposed on all.'' ^ ^^This land must be 
rebuilt," said he, '4ts customs renovated, the 
evil which is the cause of all our ills, ignorance, 
must be made to disappear; there is but one 
remedy, the education of all. ' ' " 

It was largely from their conquerors that this 
lesson was learned. Prussia, in transforming 
the spirit of the nation after the battle of Jena, 
had begun a reorganization of education with 
the aim of making over the people and bringing 
back the state to its former proud position.' 
^^The state must regain by intellectual force 
what it has lost in physical force," said the 
King of Prussia in 1807 ; ^ and the subsequent 
development of the power of his realm has 
more than justified his anticipations of the 
efficacy of instruction. Keen observers like 
Gabriel Monod testified to the intelligence 
of the German common soldier in the War of 
1870. 

^^I knew before the campaign," he said, 

^ Gambetta : Discours, etc., p. 387. 

2 Hanotaux, G. : Contemporary France, Vol. II, p. 719. 
^Breal: Quelques Mots sur Flnstruction Publique en 
France, p. 2; Duruy: Pour la France, p. 11. 
^ Breal, op. cit., p. 2. 

30 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

shortly after the war, ^^how high was the level 
of instruction in Germany; but I did not sus- 
pect how far this universal instruction had de- 
veloped. Almost all the soldiers had with them 
notebooks in which they took notes on the cam- 
paign ; they loved to read and all knew how to 
write. But what astonished me most was the 
lucidity and the stability of their spirit. With 
almost all I could converse with interest, and 
the accuracy of the information which they gave 
me proved that the critical spirit, which consti- 
tutes the glory of German science, has insen- 
sibly penetrated all ranks of society. When 
they gave an account of a battle, they knew 
how to distinguish that of which they had been 
eye-witnesses from that which they had leaiTied 
at second hand, but with guaranties of certitude, 
and from that which they knew only by hear- 
say." ^ French statesmen accepted the dictum 
that it was the Prussian schoolmaster who won 
at Sedan;- and it was pointed out that ^'by the 
school . . . the character of a nation can be 

^ Ibid., pp. 397-398, quotins: Monod : Allemands et Fran- 
<^ais; "'We have been beaten by adversaries/ said Gam- 
betta in 1872, 'who had on their side foresight, discipline, 
and science.' " Hanotaux, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 719. 

2 Guerard : French Civilization in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, p. 239. 

31 



^Breal: Instruction Publique, p. 118. 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

molded. ' ' ^ Out of the black depths of the 
tragedy of 1870 has developed the new 
spirit of intelligent patriotism in the French 
schools. 

As long as instruction was not entirely gratn^B 
itous, however, as long as it was not compul- 
sory, and as long as the state school was pri- 
marily under the influence of the Church, it was 
impossible to make full use of education as an 
instrument of national regeneration. It was 
natural and consistent that the religious teach- 
ers should pay more attention to the principles 
of Christianity and the doctrines of the Cath- 
olic Church than to the formation of a psy- 
chology of national defense and loyalty to the 
Republic. Furthermore, the clergy favored the 
reestablishment of monarchy. Hence Repub- 
lican leaders bent their energies for many years 
following the war to making education fre 
universal, compulsory, and secular. Their e: 
forts, at first not very successful, owing largely 
to the unsettled internal condition of the coun- 
try, culminated finally in the passage of three 
important laws. That of the 16th of June, 
1881, made instruction absolutely gratuitous in 
all the public primary schools, in the salles 



lb- , 
irs I 






1 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOaY OF DEFENSE 

d'asile and in the primary normal schools.^ The 
act of the 28th of March, 1882, established the 
compulsory principle for all children between 
the ages of six and thirteen years.- It also for- 
bade any religious instruction to be given with- 
in the walls of the school, at the same time with- 
drawing from members of the clergy the right 
to inspect schools, conferred on them by the 
Lot Falloux.^ The law of 1886 organized pri- 
mary instruction, public and private, providing 
also for state inspection of all elementary 
schools, including those of religious orders. 
Thus by making education universal the state 
was in a position to raise the general level of 
the intelligence of the French people ; by freeing 

^ Levasseur, E. : L'Inst ruction Prim a ire et Profes- 
sionelle en France sous la Troisieme Republique, p. 14. 

2 Ibid., p. 15. Article 4 of the law reads : "L'instniction 
primaire est obligatoire pour les enfants des deux sexes 
a^es de six ans revolus a treize ans revolus; elle pent etre 
donnee soit dans les etablissements d'instruction primaire 
on secondaire, soit dans les ecoles publiques et libres, soit 
lans les families, par le pere de famille lui-meme ou par 
itjute personne qu'il aura choisie." 

^ Ibid. Article 2 reads : "Les ecoles primaires publiques 
vaqueront un jour par semaine, en outre du dimanche, afin 
de permettre aux parents de faire donner, s^ils desirent, a 
leurs enfants Finstruction religieuse, en dehors des edifices 
scolaires." 

33 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

the school from clerical influence, it could use 
that institution more fully than ever before to 
aid in carrying out national aims and ideals. 



II. THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM 

In molding the psychologj^ of defense against 
aggression it was not enough, of course, that 
the state should simply stand sponsor for the 
education of every boy and girl between the 
ages of six and thirteen years. A new spirit 
must be infused into the youth of France. Their 
ideals must be unified ; thoy must be led to real- 
ize the gravity of their country ^s problems. In 
otlier words, a staunch and true devotion to the 
Fatherland, sufficient to weather any crisis, 
must be inculcated in the minds and hearts of 
the oncoming generations. Therefore direct in- 
struction in patriotism has been given in the 
schools, which has revolved chiefly around the 
following points: (1) the love of France; (2) 
the military spirit and the obligatory service; 
and (3) the duty of cultivating physical cour- 
age. Furthermore, (4) the children have 
learned to know that taxation is necessary to 
support the army; (5) they have been given 
some definite information in regard to the state 

34 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

of the national defenses; and (6) certain writ- 
ers have pointed out to them the perils of de- 
population in a country menaced by increas- 
ingly powerful neighbors. 

Each of these points will be considered in 
turn. In general the aim has been to create in 
the children a rational patriotism, rather than 
an unthinking, emotional attachment to the land 
of their birth. It has therefore been the task 
of teachers and of the w^riters of textbooks to 
develop ideals in the pupils, and to support 
these with arguments. It has been the duty of 
the government to make the instruction sys- 
tematic. The teaching has indeed had its weak- 
nesses and failures, but on the whole it has 
fostered successfully the new spirit in France. 

A glow of ardor suffuses the formal, precise 
pages of the textbook when the author deals 
with '^La Patrie." Here, at any rate, he can 
give full vent to his enthusiasm. 

^^Do you know what the Fatherland is? 
It is the house where your mother has 
carried you in her arms. It is the lawn on 
which you play your joyous games. It is 
the school where you receive your first in- 
struction. It is the town hall where floats 
the flag of France. It is the cemetery where 

35 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

your ancestors rest. It is the clock which you 
see again with a new joy on each return to the 
village. It is the fields which bear the traces 
of the labor of your fathers. It is the hills, the 
mountains which you have so many times 
climbed. 

^'Men of the same country are compatriots; 
they form a great family, a nation. 

'^The thirty-seven million inhabitants of 
France constitute the French family. They 
have the same history, the same joys, the same 
hopes. They sorrow over the reverses of their 
common Fatherland, and take pride in her pros- 
perity ; they share her fortune, good or bad.'* ^ 

Love of France constitutes tlie road to hap- 
piness ; ^ more than that, it is the first of duties.* 
'^The Fatherland,'' says Compayre, ''is the na- 
tion which you should love, honor and serve 
with all the strength of your body, with all the 
energy and all the devotion of your soul/'* 
And in a little poem a father thus counsels his 
son: 

^ Jost et Braeunig: Lectures Pratiques, pp. 111-112. 

* Boniface: Pour le Commencement de la Classe (gar- 
dens), p. 144. 

^ Catholic texts place it second. See Wirth : Livre de 
Lecture Courante des Jeunes Filles Chretiennes. 

'Elements d'lnstructioii Morale et Civique, p. 56. 

36 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

Be son and brother to the end, 

My joy and hope enhance, 
But lad, be sure that 'fore all else 

You place the love of France.^ 

One author, indeed, reminds us of the Napo- 
leonic catechism in stating that, according to an. 
ancient writer, to love and serv^e one's coun- 
try is one of the means of honoring the Deity.^ 
Americans are too apt to assume that pa- 
triotism is a plant that needs no watering, that 
it grows of itself; but the more intelligent 
French schoolmaster is far from this unwar- 
ranted assumption. ^^ There are people," says 
Compayre, '^who say, ^One does not learn to 
love one's country.' They deceive themselves; 
one learns to love one's country as one learns 
anything else. ' ' ^ Nor is it sufficient, according 
to a recent writer, simply to love France ; it is 
necessary to know why one loves her. Only 
through such knowledge can patriotism rest on 
a sound basis."* Thus by instruction the ideal 

*From ^^Tu Seras Soldat" by V. de Laprade, quoted in 
Jost et Braeunig: Lectures Pratiques, p. 119. 
'Fouillee: Les Enfants de Marcel, p. 73. 
'Elements d'Instruction Morale et Civaque, p. 59; Pontse- 
rez: Cours de Morale Pratique, p. 124, puts it thus: 
L'amour de la patrie est naturel; ^education le fortifie." 
* Duruy : Pour la Frajice, p. 23. "La conclusion de tout 

37 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of devotion to the Fatherland is implanted and 
fostered in the hearts of the youth of France ; ^ 
and upon this foundation is reared the super- 
structure of the various duties which patriot- 
ism entails.^ 

First of all these obligations is that of de- 
fending the Fatherland i^ time of war. Into 
the heart of the little boy sitting on the bench 
of the village school is instilled the ideal of de- 
fending his country as he would his family, as 
he would his mother.^ ''If your family were 

ce qui precede est qu^il ne suffit pas d'aimer sa patrie, mais 
qu^il faiit encore savoir pourquoi on Faime. Le patriotisme 
rej^ose alors siir une base plus solide que Tinstinct seul." 

^ Le Peyre: Livret d'fiducation Morale, pp. 22-23; 
Bataille: Lectures Fran^aises, pp. 177-178; ibid., p. ISO; 
Boitel, J.: La Recitation (1) a 12 ans), pp. 59-77; ibid., 
(6 a 9 ans), pp. 37-44; Ibid., Trois Annees, etc., pp. 184- 
218; Boniface: Pour le Conunencement de la Classe, pp. 37- 
38; Lemoine: Li\Tet d^Enseignement Moral, p. 24; Manuel, 
G. : Nouveau Livi-e, etc., p. 35; Pontsevrez, op. cit., p. 140; 
Foncin, M. : L'Annee Preparatoire de Geogi-apbie, p. 6; 
Devinat : Livre de Lecture et de Morale (Cours Moyen), pp. 
46-61 ; Barrau : La Patrie, passim ; Bedel, J. : L'Annce En- 
fantine de Geograpbie, p. 9^ Duruy: Pour la France, pas- 
sim ; Martin et Lemoine : Lectures Cboisies ; Fautras et Vil- 
lain: L'Enseignement Musical a PEcole Primaire, passim; 
etc. 

- CompajTe : Elements d'Instruction Morale et Civique, 
p. 59. 

3 De Grandmaison : Scenes, p. 95. 

38 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

insulted, attacked, what would you do? You 
would join with your father and your brothers 
to defend it against its enemies. Likewise when 
the Fatherland is menaced, all Frenchmen rise 
to defend it against the foreign foe."^ It is 
not war for war's sake that these writers teach. 
They do not attempt to attract the support of 
youth to a pohcy of conquest by veiling in a 
mist of glory the miseries and horrors of bat- 
tle, or by cro^vning the bloody head of Mars 
with a wreath of romance.^ Of this sort of pa- 
triotism they had had their fill before 1870.^ 
Not infrequently a writer cautions his youth- 
ful readers against the spirit of chauvinism,^ 
warning them, for example, against too keen 
a susceptibility to slights and insults, and con- 
demning such aggressions as those of Fran- 
cis I against Italy, Louis XIV against Holland, 
and Napoleon against Europe.^ The author of 

^Jost et Braeunig: Lectures Pratiques, p. 112. 

2 E.g., Madame Fouillee's book : '^Les Enf ants de Marcel," 
which in 1896 was in its seventieth edition, gives a vivid 
picture of campaign life in the Franco-Gennan War, prais- 
ing the soldiers devotion to duty in the midst of suffering 
and tragedy. 

*Breal: Instruction Publique, p. 117. 

* E.g., Compayre, op. cit., p. 63. 

•Payot: La Morale a I'Ecole, pp. 220-229. 

39 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

a recent manual bids schoolboys distinguish 
between V esprit militaire and V esprit guerrier, 
the former being right and necessary, the latter 
wrong and dangerous. 

^ ^However painful the sacrifice may be, young 
people, it is necessary to renounce this war-lov- 
ing spirit {esprit guerrier). If it well becomes 
the youth of a fiery people, consumed with the 
need of activity and expansion, it does not suit 
the maturity of a great nation like our own. 
He who has reached manhood ought not to have 
the same tastes as a child. It is the same for 
peoples, who, like individuals, pass through suc- 
cessive ages. France is now at the age when 
the serious work of the brain is being substi- 
tuted for violent action, when impetuous out- 
bursts should give place to reflection. 

^^Let the war-loving spirit yield to the mili- 
tary spirit. 

^'The military spirit is that of a people firmly 
resolved not to make any attempt against the 
independence of its neighbors, but firmly re- 
solved also to make its name respected. . . . 
The military spirit will see to all the needs of 
our security, because it will bring us the solid 
virtues that render a people invincible. ' ^ ^ 

^ Duruy : Pour la France, pp. 30-32. 

40 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

In this book, as in many others for the use 
of children, there is expressed a foreboding, 
even a belief, that a day of conflict must come, 
a day when the envy or jealousy of some other 
power will result in an attack on the Father- 
land. Thus a poet, popular in the schools of 
France, sings: 

Tu seras soldat, cher petit! 
Til sais, men enfant, si je t'aime! 
Mais ton pere t'en avertit, 
C'est lui qui t'armera lui-meme. 

Quand le tambour battra demain, 
Que ton ame soit aguerrie ; 
Car j'irai tWrir de ma main 
A notre mere, la Patrie.^ 

Indeed the general tone of patriotic instruc- 
tion in France is one of solemn expectation, 
rather than of satisfied retrospection as in the 
United States. ^^Be ready!" is the advice 
given by their mentors to the youth of France.^ 
^*When ^The Day' arrives, be prepared to en- 
dure hunger, thirst and cold for the sake of the 
Fatherland. Be ready to die rather than aban- 
don your post.''^ These and other precepts have 

1 V. de Laprade : "Tu Seras Soldat/' 

2 Payot : La Morale a TEcole, p. 225. 

^ Aulard et Bayet : Morale et Instruction Civique, Part I, 
p. 51. 

41 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

helped to keep alive in the minds of French- 
men the possibilities of another war, and have 
shown them how serious were to be their own 
obligations in the day of crisis. 

Love of country and a stern sense of duty 
must, of course, be supplemented in war time 
by physical bravery. Partly because of this 
fact the children have been led to look upon 
courage as one of the highest of virtues. 
Through story and through precept it is 
taught.^ A reading book tells the tale of a 
brave little lad who saves a baby from being 
killed by a mad dog.^ A manual of moral in- 
struction points out the misery of trembling 
cowardice ; ^ and both these books emphasize 
the virtue and necessity of coolness in time of 
danger. So, too, the advantage that courage in 
time of war gives both to the nation and to the 
individual is inculcated. 

^^ Bravery is courage in battle," says Payot. 

^ Petit et Lamy: Jean Lavenir, p. 318; Devinat : Livre 
de Lecture et de Morale (Cours Moyen), pp. 145-160; Boitel : 
La Recitation (9 a 12 ans), pp. 104-109; ibid. (6^9 ans), 
p. 51 ; ibid., Trois Annees, etc., pp. 57-65 ; Aulard et Bayet : 
Morale, etc., Part I, p. 54 ; Cuir : Les Petits ficoliers, p. 92 ; 
Chalamet : Mes Deuxiemes Lectures, pp. 103-105, etc. 

2 De Grandmaison : Scenes, pp. 183-186. 

3 Paj^ot : La Morale a PEcole, p. 66, 

42 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

''In war, courage and steadiness are necessary 
every minute. To march in weather icy cold 
or burning hot, often with wounded feet, with 
chilblains, to lie on the damp earth, to suffer 
thirst and hunger: all this must be endured 
gayly. Those who complain are bad comrades, 
for discouragement is contagious. 

''In the day of battle the terrible roar of 
the cannon makes the heart beat and brings the 
cold sweat . . . but the brave quickly recover 
their coolness. They save their cartridges. If 
it possessed a hundred riflemen, perfectly calm, 
a regiment would be invincible. A story is 
told of a battle, in 1881, where it took 41 can- 
non shots and 33,000 rifle shots to kill 70 Arabs. 
In Afghanistan the English, at 300 meters, 
fired 50,000 times and killed 25 enemies ! Twelve 
calm men, who aim with tranquillity, are worth 
a regiment of fools. 

"Keep cool under fire, and we shall be in- 
vincible. ' ' ^ 

Thus from very early years the French lad 
is taught the meaning of courage and coolness; 
the ideal of bravery inspires him to heroic 
deeds. Such teachings play an important part 
in the formation of the psychology of national 

'Ibid., pp. 67-68. 

43 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

defense; and this psychology must account, in 
a measure, for the French soldier ^s readiness 
to do his full duty in the present crisis, for his 
realization of the sacrifices which the fulfill- 
ment of that duty must entail. It is a training 
which the United States would do well to imi- 
tate. 

The French have understood, however, that 
in laying the educational foundations for the 
task of national defense it is necessary to do 
more than arouse the spirit that would brave 
danger and death in time of war. The youth 
must be led to bear willingly during peaceful 
years the heavy and painful burden of prepara- 
tion for the coming conflict. Courage, enthu- 
siasm, and self-sacrifice would be powerless 
against a hostile army, organized and trained.^ 
Hence the oncoming generations must be taught 
to support the government's program of uni- 
versal compulsory military training. 

In pursuance of this policy the writers of 
school manuals have appealed to the reason of 
the youth of France with many arguments to 
show the necessity of the military service for 
everyone. Thus it is pointed out that while 
citizen armies were once possible, they are so 

^ Gerard : Morale, p. 188. 

44 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

no longer, because ' ' the complexity of the mili- 
tary trade has rendered necessary a long ap- 
prenticeship." ^ One never knows when the 
country mil be in danger,^ for the jealousy or 
ill will of neighboring peoples will some time 
render war necessary.^ And when the enemy is 
at the frontier every citizen ought to know 
how to manage a gun or cannon, or to ride a 
horse.'* Love of discipline is a duty, since an 
undisciplined army can cause the ruin of a coun- 
try.^ Furthermore, military training hardens 
the body, counteracting the enervating influ- 
ence of the soft and easy life to wliich France 
is becoming accustomed.^ The activity of neigh- 
boring countries in manufacturing guns and 
cannon,*^ the superior preparation of the Prus- 
sians in the War of 1870 ^ are other reasons ad- 

^ Mabilleau, Levasseur et Delacourtie : Corn's d^Instnic- 
tion Civique. Instruction Civique — Droit Usuel. Economie 
Politique, p. 136. 

* Pontse\Tez : Cours de Morale Pratique, p. 136. 
*Compayre: Elements, p. 89. 

* Bert, P. : L'Instruction Civique, pp. 15-16. 
*Fouillee: Francinet, p. 258. 

* Laloi, P. : La Premiere Annee d'Instruetion Morale et 
Ci\'ique. 

' Lavisse, Ernest : La Nouvelle Deuxieme Annee d'His- 
toire de France, p. 404. 

* Chalamet : Jean Felber, p. 109. 

45 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

vanced for bearing the burdens of militarism; 
and the conclusion is reached that ^^ since mili- 
tary service is necessary it ought to be obliga- 
tory." ^ 

**The military training," says M. Aulard, ^4s 
an obligation very heavy, very painful. We 
would suffer less of it, and fewer soldiers would 
be necessary, if there were no longer in Europe 
kings and emperors who amuse themselves by 
exciting quarrels among peoples, by making 
them believe that they hate one another. Lit- 
tle by little people will learn that they are 
brothers, and the French Republic will have 
no longer any fear of being attacked or invaded 
by kings or emperors. Unfortunately this 
bright day is still far distant, and, as long as 
other nations will not disarm, we must have a 
powerful army to defend the independence of 
our nation. 

*^That is why the military service is obliga- 
tory. If there were no army, France would be 
conquered and would become German or Rus- 
sian. But we wish to remain Frenchmen, and, 

^ Mabilleau, Levasseur et Delacourtie: Cours d'Instniction 
Civique. Instruction Civique — Droit Usuel. Economie Po- 
litique, p. 136; Coudert et Cuir: Memento Theorique, p. 
133. 

46 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

besides, the existence of France is useful to 
humanity. 

' ' Therefore let us perform our military serv- 
ice with good grace, since it is necessary to do 
it. Let us perform it with zeal, in willing com- 
pUance with the military regulations, since it 
is for the interest of France."^ 

Not only are these arguments set forth in 
support of the general policy of compulsory 
training, but the laws of 1872 and 1889 are spe- 
cifically defended,^ while at least one author, 
writing near the end of the nineteenth century, 
argues in favor of increasing the length of the 
term of service.^ In such fashion the growing 
boy is led to realize the necessity of the hard 
years of drill that lie before him.* 

The importance of this teaching it is difficult 
to overestimate. It cannot, indeed, be proved 
to a mathematical certainty that without the 

^ Adlard et Bayet: Morale et Instinietion Civique, p. 53. 

2 Blanchet et Pinard : Cours Complet, p. 602 ; Le Peyre, 
Livre d'Ediication, p. 42. 

^ David-Sauvageot : Monsieur Prevot, p. 36. 

* Belot : La Vie Civique, p. 143 ; Caumont : Lectures, p. 
348; Aulard et Bayet: Morale, etc., Part II, p. 42; Jost et 
Braeunig: Lectures, etc., p. 42; Quilici et Baccus: Petit 
Livre, p. 165; Petit et Lamy: Jean Lavenir, p. 248; 
riialamet : Jean Felber, p. 109, etc. 

47 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

aid of the school the government's program 
of preparedness would have broken down; but 
it is at least a fair supposition that without such 
instruction the policy could not have been main- 
tained in its entirety. If there were many in- 
telligent statesmen who could not appreciate 
the magnitude of the German menace, how could 
the populace be expected to realize it? "With 
the growth of international socialism the clamor 
for disarmament was ringing ever louder. 
Many resented the irksome years abstracted 
from their careers; and it was said that 
when the period of service with the colors was 
increased in 1913 from two years to three, 'Hhe 
great bulk of Frenchmen" were '*in a mood 
which a gust might turn against the national 
duty.'' ^ Who can say that it was not largely 
the teachings of early years that held the peo- 
ple to a support of this rigorous training? And 
^vithout such training how could the French 
have maintained any effective resistance to 
German invasion? 

Less directly connected with the develop- 
ment of patriotism than the teaching of 
bravery, love of country, or the obligatory mili- 

'"The Three Years Bill in France," Living Age, Vol. 
278, p. 247. 

48 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

tary service, but still significant in the educa- 
tional equipment for resistance to a foreign foe, 
has been the instruction in regard to national 
defenses and to taxation. The Franco-German 
War showed thoughtful men that officers and 
soldiers must have more accurate understand- 
ing of the country's fortifications and of its 
topography in the region of probable military 
operations; for in such knowledge their foes 
had been greatly superior.^ The major por- 
tion of such training must, of course, come 
during the years of obligatory military service, 
but certain fundamental notions have been im- 
planted in the schools. Thus Foncin's popular 
'^Premiere Annee de Geographic" devotes one 
out of fifty-two pages to the subject of national 
defense. He takes up, among other things, the 

'Breal: Instruction Publique (1872), pp. 90-91. "Nous 
avons trop vu dans la demiere guerre les avantages de ce 
genre d'iustruction pour qu^il soit necessaire d'y insister. 
Nos soldats, ne comprenant point d'ou venait la science 
topographique de I'ennemi s^achaniaient a poursuivre des 
espions imaginaires. Mais non seulement chaque sous-offi- 
cier prussien, en consultant sa caiie, connaissait mieux le 
pays que la plupart des habitants, mais il savait a quel 
Diouvement d^ensemble son corps d'armee prenait pail, il 
voyait les progres des operations et il en pressentait les 
elTets. La confiance s'en trouvait augmentee et passait dans 
les rangs des soldats.'' 

49 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

fighting strength of the army and navy, shows 
how the country has been fortified against at- 
tack, explains the militaiy significance of rail- 
roads, and indicates on a map the location of 
the principal fortifications.^ ^' Paris," he says, 
^4s an immense intrenched camp, and the heart 
of the national resistance in case of inva- 
sion."^ Another writer points out that *Hhe 
Meuse is the trench of our frontier," and that 
the Argonne offers no serious natural obstacle 
to the invader.^ 

Sometimes military matters are discussed in 
considerable detail,^ though naturally in a 
rather elementary way. For example, a school 
reader by MM. Jost et Braeunig^ devotes 
sixty-eight out of some four hundred pages to 
the army.^ Tlie authors define the character of 

^La Premiere Annee de Geoorraphie (199« edition), p. 28. 

2 Ibid., p. 12; Leroux et Montillot: Une Famille, pp. 
257-258. 

^ Dubois : France et Colonies, p. 39. 

*E.g., Lavisse: Tu Seras Soldat, pp. 171-177, in- 
cludes the following topics: "Construction d^une echelle 
au 1/80000.'' "Comment on mesure une distance au moyen 
de Techelle kilometrique.'' "Comment on determine une 
hauteur sur les cartes d'etat-major." 

^ Lectures Pratiques. 

6 Ibid., pp. 116-184. 

50 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

the various divisions of the army — infantry, 
cavalry, artillery, engineering corps and bag- 
gage train. They explain the meaning of the 
company and of the regiment. Thus, in regard 
to the regiment, ^^Four companies joined to- 
gether form a battalion, commanded by the bat- 
talion chief or commandant. A captain acts 
as aid to the commandant to transmit orders 
to the different companies; he is the captain- 
adjutant-major. ' ^ 

*^Four battalions, four thousand men, form 
the regiment commanded by the colonel. He is 
assisted by a second colonel, called the lieuten- 
ant-colonel. ' ' ^ 

Furthermore, a careful description is given 
of the natural and artificial fortifications by 
which France is protected. The frontier to- 
ward Germany, for example, is defended by 
four great places : 

*'l. Verdun, on the Meuse, in front of the 
passes of the Argonne; it recalls the siege of 
1792 and the energetic Beaurepaire. 

*^2. Toul, at the westernmost bend of the 
Moselle, one of the three bishoprics reunited to 
France by Henry H. 

*'3. Epinal, on the upper waters of the Mo- 

^Ibid., p. 132. 

51 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

selle, remarkable for its picturesque situation 
in the heart of the Vosges. 

*^4. Belfort, which, with its detached forts, 
guards the passage between the Vosges and the 
Jura,''^ 

By means of such instruction boys are given 
a general idea of the army organization and are 
initiated into a general knowledge of their 
country's facilities for resisting a foreign foe.^ 

In dealing with the frontier certain writers 
call attention to the danger to France from the 
northeast. Indeed long before the German 
whirlwind swept over the ill-fated state of Bel- 
gium these men were pointing out to schoolboys 
the possibility of a violation of its neutrality.* 

'Ibid., p. 1()6. 

*Vidal de la Blacbe et Camena d'Almeida: La France, 
p. 408 and passim; Allain et Ilauser: Les Principaux As- 
pects du Globe, p. 220 and passim ; David Sauvaj^^eot : Mon- 
sieur Prevot, pp. 36-38; Le Leap et Baudrillard: La 
France, etc., pp. 44-45; Lanier: Coiirs du Certificat 
d'Etudes Primaires, p. 47; Mabilleau: Cours d^Instruction 
Civique, pp. 3-6 ; etc. 

*Foucart et Qrigaut: Geocrapbie (Deuxieme Annee), 
p. 144; Dupuy: Livret de Geograpbie, pp. 16-17; Jost et 
Braeunig: Lectures Pratiques (17® edition, 1899), p. 157; 
Vidal de la Blacbe et Camena d^\lmeida: La France, 
p. 59 ; Guillot : La France et Ses Colonies. Premier Cycle. 
(Classe de Troisieme), p. 157. 

52 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

Not all of the writers, it is true, realize the full 
gravity of the peril. One puts his faith, in case 
of such attack, in the forts of Dunkirk, Lille 
and Valenciennes.^ Another believes that the 
aggressor would find as many inconveniences as 
advantages in violating Belgian neutrality.^ 
But the well-known M. Marcel Dubois, predict- 
ing and fearing the move which the Germans 
have actually made, advocates that the French 
anticipate their plan by themselves taking the 
offensive. 

*^The Belgian frontier," he says, ^'is per- 
haps more dangerous still. The neutrality of 
Belgium can be violated as well as that of 
Switzerland ; and in this country absolutely flat, 
where mounds of 40 meters pass for moun- 
tains, ... no natural obstacle aids resistance. 
There lies the weak point of our defense. . . . 
Everything, therefore, seems to indicate that if 
the French themselves do not take the offen- 
sive the great battles will take place behind our 
first line of defense, on the Marne and the 
Oise, in that plain of Champagne which has 
already seen the defeat of the Huns of Attila 

^Dupuy: Livret de Geocri-aphie, pp. 16-17. 
^ Vidal de la Blache et Camena d^ Almeida: La France, 
p. 413. 

53 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

and the last resistance of Napoleon I. It is 
therefore greatly to the interest of France to 
march forward. ^ ' ^ 

This is the only statement of the sort I have 
met, and can by no means be taken as typify- 
ing the view of the whole nation. But it is in- 
teresting to note that as early as 1891 a school 
geography was creating opinion among the 
youth of France favorable to a violation of 
Belgian neutrality by the French themselves. 

Since money is the sinews of war and of 
armed peace as well, instruction in regard to 
the reasons for taxation becomes an element in 
the formation of a psychology of national 
defense. P^'rom time immemorial men have 
groaned under the weight of tax assessments, 
and in days of stress, when their burdens have 
been augmented rather than decreased, bit- 
terness has sometimes culminated in open re- 
bellion. Now the huge army and navy of France 
have constituted a hea\y drain on the purse of 
her citizens, a drain which they, not fully awake 
to its need, might some day refuse to allow, 
preventing the government by ballot or by bul- 
let from carrying out its program. The school 
men have therefore come to the rescue of the 

^ Dubois : France et Colonies, pp. 149-150. 

54 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

state by pointing out to children the necessity 
of taxation for military and naval purposes. 

'^You have admired the martial air, the spirit, 
the fine bearing of the troops, which, at the 
autumn maneuvers, have camped near the vil- 
lage," says a textbook writer. ^'You have said 
to yourselves that if ever the country were in 
danger, this army would be there to defend it. 
Have you also asked what the cost is of so many 
uniforms, rifles, horses, cannon? To what sum 
each year amounts the maintenance of a perma- 
nent army of 600,000 menT'^ The cost of 
keeping up army and navy is heavy, admits 
Foncin, but must be borne with patriotism, since 
the country is menaced by many enemies.^ In 
general the authors try to show the reasonable- 
ness of taxation in support of the army and 
the navy, as well as of other national insti- 
tutions and public works. ^ The docility in 

^ Jost et Braeunig : Lectures Pratiques, p. 293. 

*La Premiere Annee de Geographie, p. 28. 

^ Aulard et Bayet : Morale et Instruction Civique, pp. 40, 
41; De Grandmaison: Scenes, p. 109; Lemoine: Livret, 
p. 25 ; Belot : La Vie Civique, pp. 61-69 ; Devinat : Livre 
de Lecture et de Morale, pp. 61-63; Bert: L'Instruction 
Civique, p. 37 and passim ; Yidal de la Blache : La France, 
p. 242; Guyau: La Premiere Annee, etc. Cours Moyen, 
pp. 275-276; etc. 

55 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

financial matters thus inculcated must have 
proved a great help, no less real because im- 
possible of accurate measurement, to the gov- 
ernment in meeting anti-militaristic opposi- 
tion. 

It must not be supposed that the teaching of 
patriotism in the schools has been simply the 
chance outgrowth of the sentiments of individ- 
ual writers and schoolmasters. On the contrary, 
the highly centralized government of France 
has supervised the development of this instruc- 
tion and rendered it systematic, partly by 
means of laws, but more directly through the 
official school programs and plans of study. 
These programs have been formulated from 
time to time by the government with the co- 
operation of the two Chambers, and have the 
force, though not the form, of law.^ They in- 
dicate for the individual master the objects of 
instruction and the limits within which it is to 
be pursued.^ Thus it happens that some teach- 
ing in regard to each of the topics thus far 
touched upon in this chapter has been enjoined 
by the government for the boys of France at 

^Liard, L. : Le Nouveau Plan d^Etudes de PEnseigiie- 
ment Secondaire, p. 66. 

'Buisson: Dictionnaire de Pedagogie. 

56 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

one or more stages of their school careers. 
For example, one of the subjects of moral in- 
struction provided for in the programs for 
elementary primarj^ schools, beginning with 
1882, has been La Patrie, under which head- 
ing have been taken up * ^ France, her triumphs 
and her misfortunes — Duties toward the Fa- 
therland and toward society."^ In a higher 
class of the same schools boys have been taught 
*'What a man owes to the Fatherland: obedi- 
ence to the laws, military service, discipline, 
devotion, fidelity to the flag. " ^ In the same 
connection instruction in regard to taxation has 
been provided for, while in other places ar- 
rangement has been made for the teaching of 
Le Courage ^ and La Frontiere^ Thus the 
state has caused the spirit of that patriotism, 
which, according to Compayre, *' ought to be the 

^ Organisation Pedagogique et Plan d'Etudes des J^coles 
Primaires Publiques, 1882, p. 38; ibid., 1887, p. 36; ibid., 
-^"^87-1910. 

- Organisatioyi Pedagogique et Plan d'Etudes des J&coles 
Primaires Puhliques, 1882, p. 40 ; Organisation Pedagogique 
et Plan d']Studes des Ecoles Primaires ^lementaires Prescrits 
par Arret es des 18 Janvier 1887 . . . 1909, p. 24. 

^' Plan d^^tudes . . , de VEnseignement Secondaire, 1902 

fuitieme edition), p. 53. 

* Plan d'Etudes et Programmes de VEnseignement Secon- 
daire, 1902 (Edition of 1907), p. 67. 

57 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

lay dogma, the religion of all Frenchmen,'^ ^ to 
permeate education from primary to normal 
school.^ 

Carefully organized and systematized as 
have been the government's plans for molding 
the psychology of patriotism, however, it must 
not be supposed that they have met with no op- 
position and tliat they have had no defects. 
Not only have attempts to create and drill com- 
panies and battalions of scholars as prepara- 
tory to the obligatory service of later years 
proved in many cases a lamentable failure,' but 
the teaching body itself has been affected by the 
propaganda of pacificism and even of anti-pa- 
triotism.'* Furthermore, the Third Republic and ^ 

^ Compayre: L'Education Intellectuelle et Morale, p. 439. 

* Orgayiisation Pedagogique et Plan d^litudes des Scales 
^lertr^nt aires, 1SS7, pp. 19, 23, 27, 30; Organisation Peda- 
gogique . . . des ^coles Primaires ^lementaires, 1887-1909, 
pp. 24, 29; Plan d'^tudes des iiJcoles Primaires Superieures, 
1887, p. 25; Plan d'Eiudes . . . des Ecoles Primaires Su- 
perieures de Garqons, 1909, pp. 9, 48, 62; Plan d'^tudes 
. . . de VEnseignement Secondaire Special dans les Lycees 
et Colleges J Prescrits par Arrete du 10 aout 1886, p. 38; 
Plan d^Etudes . . . dafis les Lycees et Colleges de Garqons, 
1902, pp. 23, 77-78, 157 ; Plan d'Etudes . . . des Ecoles Nor- 
males Primaires, 1905, p. 6; ibid., 1910, pp. 6, 8, 13; etc. 

"Le Foyer, Jan. 1, 1913, pp. 632-533. 

^See Chapter VI. 

58 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

the textbook writers who mirror its ideals 
have apparentl}^ done little to combat through 
the school the evil of depopulation. In an age 
when numbers make such a tremendous differ- 
ence from the militaiy point of view, France 
might well have felt alarmed to see her popu- 
lation remaining practically stationary while 
that of Germany was increasing at the rate of 
not far from a million a year. Efforts to com- 
bat the evil have been unsystematic and have 
lacked in ^^gor, though certain textbook writers 
have pointed out that the failure of France to 
increase in numbers constitutes a national peril, 
indicating causes and suggesting cures. Gan- 
neron holds the influence of the doctrines of 
Malthus primarily responsible for this lack of 
increase,^ while Foncin attributes it partially to 
the fact that too many peasants desert the coun- 
try for Paris, where existence is at once more 
costly and less sane.^ Another author advises 
Frenchmen to emigrate to the colonies, mingle 
with the natives and make of them good French- 
men, ready to defend La Patrie.^ Suggestions 
of this character, however, appear to be excep- 

^ Une Armee de Droit Usiiel, p. LIO. 

' La Premiere Annee de Geograi)hie, p. 52. 

* Villain, Comtois et Loiret : La Lecture, p. 367. 

59 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tional rather than typical ; little has been done 
to implant and foster in the hearts of young 
Frenchmen the ideal of the large family ; and 
a recent writer has even averred that ^'Mal- 
thusianism is preached unblushingly with the 
constant connivance of the government/' ^ Pos- 
sibly the school could do little to remedy the 
evil of depopulation, but it could at any rate 
make more active efforts to do so. 

Whatever have been the weaknesses and fail- 
ures of the Third Republic's policy of using the 
school to aid in fortifying the state against 
the hour of danger, these have been greatly 
overbalanced by its successes. In the first 
place the teaching of patriotism has led to a 
wider, keener and truer understanding of the 
problems of national defense. It has made im- 
possible not merely that callous, selfish, igno- 
rant indifference to the needs of the Fatherland, 
such as has been found in certain classes of 
the English working people even in the hour of 
crisis, but also that vain boasting and rash over- 
confidence which characterized the France of 
1870. For it is an honest patriotism, a critical 
patriotism, that has been taught in the schools 
of the Third Republic. The aim has been not 

^ Dimnet : France Herself Again, p. 103. 

60 



MOLDING PSYCHOLOGY OF DEFENSE 

to explain or excuse the crimes and disasters 
of the past, but to prevent the repetition of 
these in the future. Hence schoolboys have been 
warned of the suffering and trouble that a new 
invasion would necessarily bring. They have 
been taught the strong and the weak points of 
the national defense. They have been led to 
realize the necessity of enduring the hard dis- 
cipline of military service in time of peace, as 
well as to contribute willingly to the mainte- 
nance of a large army and navy. In other 
words, the Third Republic, with Reason as its 
guide, has appealed to the reason of the individ- 
ual for support in its preparedness for the dan- 
gers of war. 

In the second place the state has fostered 
carefully and systematically certain of those 
ideals w^hich always must form the foundation 
of the highest and truest heroism. Courage and 
coolness the French boy learns to admire from 
his earliest years. Love of country, which in 
its crudest form may, perhaps, be almost in- 
tuitive, the school has attempted to develop into 
a rational, intelligent, devoted patriotism, which 
will not shrink from the gravest dangers, which 
places duty to the Fatherland before all selfish 
interests. It is this new and serious spirit of 

61 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

intelligence, loyalty and determination, devel- 
oped largely through education, which consti- 
tutes the essential difference between the 
France of today and the France of 1870. It 
is a spirit which is every day apparent in the 
struggle of France against the war machine of 
her Teutonic foe. It is a spirit which may 
prove a decisive factor in the big war. 



' 



CHAPTER III 



THE INCULCATION OF HOSTILITY TOWARD ; 

GERMANY i 



3 I 



The Treaty of Frankfort gave to Germany 4^- 

the better part of Alsace and Lorraine; it left 
in the hearts of Frenchmen a deep-seated re- 
sentment against the adamantine foe who had 
forced the nation to yield this cherished por- s;^' l 
tion of her patrimony, for the two provinces J r^ 
had been among the richest and most highly 
prized parts of France. Centuries of conquest 
and diplomacy had been required to win them 
bit by bit from the Hapsburg power, though 
for more than a hundred years before the out- 
break of the Franco-German War they had been 
entirely in the hands of France. Their value 
was out of all proportion to their size, for not 
only were they fair and flourishing, but they 
had formed the strongest of barriers against 
aggression from the East, a guaranty of safety, 
a part of that national boundary to whose 
complete attainment French eyes have ever 

63 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

looked so longingly. Furthermore, though 
these provinces had become so late a part of 
France, their sons were among the most loyal 
to La Patrie; and when Germany insisted on 
the spoils of war, the thirty-five deputies from 
the unhappy lands protested at Bordeaux that 
^^ Alsace and Lorraine refuse to be alienated. 
With one voice, the citizens at their firesides, 
the soldiers under arms, the former by voting, 
the latter by fighting, proclaim to Germany, 
and to the world at large, the immutable will 
of Alsace and Lorraine to remain French!'*^ 
The people of France joined heart and soul in 
this fervid though fruitless protest against 
what they believed to be the most unjust of 
annexations. More potent with the French, 
perhaps, than any of the other reasons for 
anger against Gennany, was the feeling of hu- 
miliation that this aggregation of states, once 
so weak and disunited, had forced to her knees 
the proudest nation of Europe. It was a hu- 
miliation not to be forgotten or forgiven. 

From these feelings of injustice and wounded 
pride developed the doctrine of revanche or re- 
prisal. Some day France must regain from 
Germany the ^^lost provinces.'' Reconquest 

1 Quoted in Rose, J. H. : The Origins of the War, p. 94. 

64 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

could not of course be immediate, for the coun- 
try was exhausted and helpless, while the en- 
emy was strong and powerful; renewal of strife 
could only mean ruin. Therefore it was neces- 
sary to watch and wait, to recuperate for the 
struggle which would come later, to be thor- 
oughly prepared for the day of opportunity. 
The dream of revancJie was in the hearts of all 
ardent patriots at the very moment of the ces- 
sion of Alsace-Lorraine. 

Nevertheless it was realized that the genera- 
tions to come might be less eager to regain the 
lost provinces than those who had lived under 
the awful shadow of the tragic year and had 
known its full meaning. What had been to the 
men of 1871 a terrible humiliation might become 
to their posterity an accepted fact, unless the 
memory of loss and the duty of reconquest 
were kept alive and constantly fostered. Hence 
it has come about that the doctrine of revanche 
has been taught in the schools, in order that the 
sons and grandsons of those who struggled 
against Germany might sense fully their re- 
sponsibility for the recovery of the conquered 
lands. In various ways has this teaching been 
inculcated, sometimes by the merest suggestion, 
sometimes by the direct warning not to for- 

65 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

get that France was robbed. Fervid rhetoric 
has made of revanche an ideal, while cold logic 
has reenforced with argument the duty of win- 
ning back for the Fatherland the lost territory. 
Finally certain writers, irrespective of any di- 
rect inculcation of revanche, have aroused an- 
tagonism against Germany in the breasts of the 
school children who have studied their books. 
Geographies, histories, readers, and manuals of 
moral and civic instruction have played their 
part in fostering a psychology of hostility to- 
ward Germany. But in spite of this it may be 
questioned whether the teaching of revanche 
ever rose to the dignity of a national policy. 

Sometimes the teaching of reprisal takes the 
form merely of a delicate suggestion or a pious 
hope that the provinces will some day be 
brought back to France. Gambetta used to say 
that one should think of revanche always, but 
speak of it never. But to this sentiment a text- 
book objects for '^in order to think of it, it is 
necessary to know it." 

^^We who protest against the brutal words: 
^La force prime le droit/ who know the fidelity 
of the people of Alsace-Lorraine, do not for- 
get, behind the blue line of the Vosges, ^the lost 
Paradise.^ The stork, symbolical bird of Al- 

66 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

sace, comes back invariably in the spring to its 
nest. Let us wish that the ^Paradise Lost^ may 
become ^Paradise Regained.' "^ Children are 
reminded that the Rhine may once more be the 
boundary of the Fatherland.- They are told 
that every good Frenchman looks forward to 
the recovery of the provinces.^ It is the habit 
of map makers to separate the Alsace-Lorraine 
region from the rest of Germany by special 
boundary lines.^ Thus the boundaries of 
France are sometimes carried out to the Rhine, 
in such a way as to appear tentatively to in- 
clude the provinces, though the present politi- 
cal limits of the country are also clearly defined. 

^ Le Leap et Baudrillard : La France, etc. (Cours 
Moyen), p. 48. 

' Jost et Braeunig : Lectures Pratiques, p. 157. 

'Dupuy: Livi^et de Morale, p. 12. 

*BoiteI: La Recitation (6 a 9 ans), p. 38; Levasseur: 
Precis de la Geographie, Atlas, passim ; Dubois : France et 
Colonies, p. 72; Pape-Carpantier : Elements de Cosmog- 
raphie, Geographie, p. 42; Foncin: Geographie de la 
France, Enseignement Secondaire, passim; Coudert et 
Cuir: Memento Theorique, etc., p. 97^; Guillot: La France 
et ses Colonies. Classe de Premiere, pp. 280-281; Lanier, 
etc.: La France et ses Colonies, Legons Preparatoires, pp. 
10, 12, etc.; Le Leap et Baudnllard: La France, Metropole 
et Colonies. Coui-s Moyen, pp. 31, 34, 38, etc.; Lemonnier 
et Schrader: Elements de Geographie, pp. 41, 54, 58; Fouil- 
lee: Francinet, p. 164, etc. 

67 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Sometimes the ^ ^ Reiclisland' ' is colored in such 
a way as to differentiate it from Germany and 
at the same time from France.^ The impres- 
sion inevitably conveyed by this geographical 
hinting is that if Alsace and Lorraine no longer \ 
belong to La Patrie, neither are they admittedly 
and definitely a part of the Empire of the Hoh- 
enzollerns. ^'Let us continue to learn the geog- 
raphy of Alsace," writes Mme. Pape-Carpan- 
tier, ^^as one continues to occupy oneself with a 
sister momentarily absent.'' - Such devices and 
sentiments serve to stimulate memories and to 
sustain hopes. fl 

Sometimes incitement to reprisal is more di- 
rect and decisive than that just described; the 
responsibility for redeeming tlie honor of their 
country is placed squarely on the shoulders of 
the youth of France.^ 

^^My son,'' writes one impassioned author, 
^'be the soldier of the humiliated Fatherland 

^ Foncin : La Premiere Annee de Geographie, passim ; 
Bedel: L' Annee Enfantine de Geographie, p. 13; Lanier, 
etc.: La France et ses Colonies, p. 14; ibid., Cours du 
Certificat d'Etudes Primaires, p. 30; ibid., Cours felemen- 
taire, p. 24; etc. 

2 Elements de Cosmograpbie, etc., p. 52. 

^ E. g., Lavisse, Ernest : La Premiere Annee d^Histoire de 
France, p. 216. 

68 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

which must be avenged, of France which must 
be regenerated. Serve no man whatsoever; 
serve neither party nor family, but one idea 
and one tiling: Liberty and the Republic. 
Work, study, seek, meditate, learn, and when 
you and those of your age shall have brought 
back to the Fatherland her greatness, come back 
and strike with your hand, once little but then 
strong, on the stone under which I shall sleep, 
and say only these words — but say them, -La 
revanche est prise.^ " ^ Thus if certain writers 
aim merely to keep alive the memory of 
France's loss or to suggest recoveiy in some 
vague future, in such passages as the one just 
quoted, on the other hand, the demand for re- 
prisal rises to the height of an ideal. 

It is characteristic of the French to appeal to 
the head as well as to the heart, so the text- 
book w^riters advance arguments to show why 
Vlsace and Lorraine ought to form a part of 
their country. Some point out that the *^ natu- 
ral'* boundary of France to the east is the river 
Rhine.^ One contends that as long as the dis- 
puted territory remains in the hands of the 

^Burle: L^Histoire Nationale, p. 59, quoting J. Claret ie. 
'Hanriot: Vive la France!, p. 124; Foncin: La Premiere 
Annee de Geographie, p. 29. 

69 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 






Empire ^4t will be an insurmountable obstacle 
to the reconciliation of France and Germany; j 
it will compel ruinous armaments for both; it 1 
will profoundly trouble the peace of Europe. '^ ^ 
Little stress is laid, however, on the historical 
claims of France to the two provinces.^ After 
all, as an English scholar has admitted sinc^ the 
opening of the present war,^ if history alone 
w^ere the arbiter, Germany could show a better 
title to the region than France. 

What grieves the school men most, appar- 
ently, what rouses their indignation to the high- 
est pitch, is that the provinces were annexedBl 
to Germany against the will of their inhabi- 
tants, the greater part of whom, it is claimed, 
have remained at heart ever loyal to La Pa- 
trie,^ ^*How they have suffered from the brutal 
War of 1870!'' is the sentiment of a scliool 

^ Fonciu : Geographic de France, Enseignement Secon- 
daire, pp. 120-121. 

- The historical arerinTient is, indeed, sometimes used by 
French writei-s, e. ^,, Lanier, etc. : La France et ses Colo- 
nies. Cours du Certificat d'Etudes Primaires, p. 54. 

' Rose, J. Holland : The Origins of the War, p. 92. 

* Rocherolles : Les Secondes Lectures, p. 13 ; Lavisse : La 
Premiere Annee d'Histoire de France, p. 216; Foncin : La 
Premiere Annee de Geographic, p. 29 ; Chalamet : Mes Pre- 
mieres Lectures, p. 77; Guyau: L' Annee Preparatoire, 
Cours Elementaire, p. 195; Gerard: Morale, p. 184. 

70 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

reader. ^' Their heart still bleeds, they cannot 
accustom themselves to being French no 
longer."^ '^Oh, Papa!'' exclaims little Louis, 
in one of those dialogue stories with which 
French textbooks abound. ^^ What pain it must 
give the people of Alsace and Lorraine to see 
German soldiers in command over them, to per- 
ceive from afar the French flag under which 
they are unable to range themselves ! " ^ 

It is stated that the Gennans have ill-treated 
the folk of the conquered lands. ^ A story is 
told of one Jerome Brunner, who was con- 
demned to three months' imprisonment for fly- 
ing the French flag.^ '^In this unhappy coun- 
try of Alsace," says Chalamet, ^'one risks be- 
ing spied upon and denounced. Each day 
brings news of condemnations as ridiculous as 
they are odious. . . . Young people are thrown 
into prison for having sung the Marseillaise, 
or for having spoken ill of Germany."*^ It is 

^Juranville et Berger: La Troisieme Livre de Lecture, 
p. 54. 

* Mabilleau : Cours d'lnstruction Civiqiie, p. 7. 

"Schrader et Gallouedec : Cours General de Geograpbie, 
p. 513; Chalamet: Mes Premieres Lectures, p 83; Blan- 
chet : Precis d'Histoire, p. 244. 

'Chalamet: Jean Felber, pp. 347-349. 

•Ibid. 

71 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

stated that the inhabitants of the provinces have 
never ceased to protest against incorporation 
in the Empire/ that many of them migrate to 
France each year to avoid being under German 
rule.- Thus General Lavisse says: ^^In order 
not to become Germans many natives of Alsace 
and Lorraine left their villages and towns ; the 
old houses where their parents had lived, the 
fields, the factories, all their fortunes, they 
abandoned to remain Frenchmen. 

^^ Others remain there, submitting perforce to 
the laws of Germany, but at the bottom of their 
hearts they always love France ; they hope one 
day to come back to her.'' ^ The tragedy of the 
separation from the homeland is perhaps best 
brought out in Alphonse Daudet's little master- 
piece, ^'La Derniere Classo," even more popu- 
lar among the school children of France than 
among American boys and girls, for whom the 
pathos of the master's farewell to his scholars 
is sometimes marred by the painful require- 
ments of translation. 

Thus many children in France have been led 

^Jallifier et Vast: Histoire Contemporaine, Cours de 
Philosophie, p. 600. 

'Ibid.; Burle: L'Histoire Nationale, p. 65. 
•Lavisse: Tu Seras Soldat, pp. 29-30. 

72 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

to look upon the Alsace-Lorraine region as 
rightfully theirs. The school has helped to pre- 
vent the soporific influence of Time from grad- 
ually and unprotestingly lulling the youth of 
the country into insensibility to the wounds and 
sufferings of 1870. Education has been used to 
aid in molding a psychology of reparation. 

The doctrine of revanche has been fur- 
ther buttressed in the schools by criticisms of 
Germany and the Germans, which amount at 
times to an inculcation of dislike, antagon- 
ism, even hatred. Compayre, for example, 
in a book of moral and civic instruction, 
warns his youthful readers against enter- 
taining too strong a liking for other coun- 
tries, and especially against any friendly feel- 
ing toward Germany. ^ ' Do not place in the same 
rank in your affections France, which is your 
common mother, and England, Italy, Spain. 
... As for the people who have done evil to 
your country, who have ravaged its territory, 
who have massacred its infants, how could you 
love them?"^ Other writers aver that Ger- 
many combines the brutality of barbarous races 
with the intelligent dissimulation of the most 

^ Compayre : Elements d'lnstruction Morale et Civique, 
p. 62. 

73 



PATRIOTS IN THE Mx\KING 

civilized,^ that slie has risen to power by in- 
trigue, cunning and abominable warfare.^ The 
eminent historian Lavisse accuses her of hat- 
ing France, against whom she has long been 
planning a new war,^ while the author of an- 
other historical text directly advises the French 
to cultivate a '^ patient hatred of the in- 
vader. ' ' ^ 

Such hatred toward Germany the writer of a 
recent book of moral and civic instruction dep- 
recates, yet himself naively suggests by warn- 
ing French youth against Teutonic arrogance 
and biiitality. 

^^Let us not hate; let us surpass! Hatred 
is a low sentiment. Besides no passion so gen- 
erally prevents one from obsen^ing carefully 
and reasoning well. Of w^hat advantage is it, 
for example, to hate the Germans? Let us sur- 
pass them in ardor for work, in the intelligent 
utilization of knowledge, in commercial pa- 
tience. Let us surpass them by not having their 

^Pigeonneau: U Europe, p. 215; Reclus: Geographie, p. 
82. 

* Pape-Carpantier : Elements de Cosmographie, Geogra- 
pliie, p. 82; Dubois: France et Colonies, p. 132. 

" La Nouvelle Deuxieme Annee d'Histoire de France, p. 
405 (Edition of 1901) ; Hanriot: Vive la France, p. 274. 

* Pigeonneau : Histoire de France, p. 274. 

74 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

arrogance, their brutality, their disdain for the 
rights of other nations.'' ^ 

That Germany's conduct of the War of 1870 
was implacably cruel and barbarous,^ character- 
ized also by insolence and brigandage,^ is an- 
other of the accusations brought against her. 
''Recently," says M. Reclus, ''they [the Ger- 
mans] have proved that the basis of their mo- 
rality is Z iceckmdssigkeit (the end justifies the 
means)." Germany "has showoi that her last 
word is a brute-like discipline, a science com- 
manded by ambition, a brutality in the service 
of violence, and a national pride ministering 
to madness."^ Not infrequently, and espe- 
cially in the earlier textbooks, appear stories 
of those atrocities which the French claim 
to have characterized Germany's invasion of 
France in 1870. A favorite tale is that of the 
three instructors of the department of the 
Aisne, whom the Germans shot, apparently in 
order to terrorize the inhabitants of the region 
through which the invading army was march- 

^Payot: La Morale a I'Ecole (Quatrierae edition, 1910), 
p. 227. 

*Duniy, v.: Petite Histoire Generale, p. 247; Hanriot: 
Vive la France, p. 16; Gerard: Morale, p. 227. 

*Pig^onneau: Histoire de France, p. 274. 

* Reclus : Geographie, p. 82. 

75 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

ing.^ The following version of the story is 
given in the ^^ Lectures Pratiques" of MM. Jost 
et Braeunig : - 

THE THREE INSTRUCTORS OF THE AISNE 

*^In the court of the Normal School at Laon 
stands a commemorative monument, the face 
of which, in black marble, bears this inscrip- 
tion: 

TO THE MEMORY 
OF THE THREE INSTRUCTORS OF THE AISNB 

SHOT BY THE PRUSSIANS 

FOR HAVING DEFENDED THEIR FATHERLAND 

DURING THE WAR OF 1870-1871 

THE COUNCIL-GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT 

'^With what facts is this inscription con- 
nected? In 1870, after the unhappy days of 
Eeichshoffen, Gravelotte and Sedan, the depart- 
ment of the Aisne was invaded, as were so many 
other French departments. Everywhere the 
people turned to the duty of defending the 
country. 

*^The instructors did not content themselves 

^ Laloi : L'Annee Preparatoire d'Instruction Morale et 
Civique, pp. 109-110; Lavisse: Tu Seras Soldat, pp. 37-45; 
etc. 

2 Pp. 161-164. 

76 



i 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

with teaching patriotism, they preached it by 
example, they paid their debts to it in person 
— and with their lives. 

^'At Pasly, Jules Debordeaux, at the head of 
the national guard, repulsed the enemy, who 
were seeking to throw a bridge of boats across 
the river Aisne. But the Germans crossed the 
river at another point and turned the flank of 
the valiant defenders. In place of honoring 
the patriotism and the courage of these brave 
.Frenchmen, they maltreated Jules Debordeaux 
and another member of the national guard, and 
shot them on a neighboring hill, firing at them 
one after the other, as at a living target, and 
abandoning the bodies without burial. 

^^At Vauxrexis, Poulette had distributed 
arms to the national guard. The Prussians 
shot him with two other patriots. Some twenty 
persons, arrested as hostages and cruelly mal- 
treated, were forced to bury the dead bodies 
and to trample on the soil which covered 
them. 

'*At Vendieres, Leroy was arrested in his 
classroom, in the midst of his pupils ; they ac- 
cused him of having been one of a body of 
francS'tireurs. He had not been out of his 
connnune ; he had not left his class. But no rea- 

77 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING _ 

son, no proof was necessary; he was torn from 
his family, "beaten, led to Chalons and shot. 

'^ ^Corne,^ he cried, ^come and see, ye people 
of Chalons, how an innocent Frenchman dies/ 
Of four condemned men, the unfortunate Leroy 
was the fourth to be shot. To the last moment 
he held his right hand up, as though still to af- 
firm his innocence. 

^^ Leroy had taken no effective part in the de- 
fense of the country, but was the victim of a 
wicked condemnation, intended above all to ter- 
rorize the people ; but he died a man of courage 
and his name should be associated with those 
of his colleagues who paid with their lives for 
their devotion to the Fatherland." 

Another stoiy is that of the heroic peasant 
woman who was shot by the Prussians for 
refusing to betray the direction taken by a 
French regiment.^ Children coming under the 
influences of such teachings must naturally 
incline to look upon the Germans with distrust 
and dislike, must believe them capable of the 
worst barbarities. 

^^When their eyes were moist with tears,'* 
says General Lavisse, describing the effects of 
such recitals on the pupils of a school, '^when 

^ Lebaigue : Le Livre de FEcole. Choix de Lectures, etc. 

78 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

indignation was depicted on their faces at the 
memory of cruelties inflicted, the master was 
content. These young hearts would love France 
well, since they already knew how much she 
had to suffer. ' ' ^ 

This dark and somber picture of Teutonism, 
however, is not wholly unrelieved by the light 
of praise. Certain qualities of the Germans 
the French lad is called upon to admire and 
presumably to imitate. The perseverance and 
the spirit of discipline by which Prussia has 
become powerful are commended ; - so also is 
the Teutonic ardor for work.^ Guyau says that 
while Gennan children labor less quickly than 
French, they do so with no less courage. They 
learn and preserve the habit of discipline, the 
first quality of a soldier.^ In rare instances 
a writer rises above the attitude of hostility to 
something approaching friendliness.^ The au- 
thors of a manual of moral and civic instruc- 
tion even go so far as to maintain that the 

'La\isse: Tu Seras Soldat, pp. 37-38. 

* Dupuy : Livret de Geographie, p. 18. 

* Schrader et Gallouedec : Coui-s General de Geographie, 
'04. 

' L'Annee Preparatoire, etc. Cours Elementaire, pp. 
199-200. 

* Villain, Comtois et Loiret : La Lecture du Jour. 

79 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

French should love all men, whatever their race, 
religion or nationality, and those who hold that 
Germans or Englishmen ought to be detested 
are not patriots but ignoramuses.^ Such a 
statement, however, is exceptional rather than 
typical. A grudging admiration may, indeed, 
be yielded to certain qualities of the Ger- 
mans, but a desire for really friendly rela- 
tions with the neighboring country is seldom 
evinced. 

In spite of all that h^s been said, however, 
it may be affirmed that if the teaching of hos- 
tility thus far described constitutes an indict- 
ment, it is an indictment against individual 
writers rather than against the government of 
France or the nation as a whole. True, cer- 
tain of the textbooks in which antipathy to the 
Teutons has been expressed have been extraor- 
dinarily well received in France. Compayre's 
book of moral and civic instruction, to which 
reference has been made, had at an early date 
reached its 112th edition and was carried on 
all the departmental lists.^ Foncin's elemen- 
tary geography had, shortly before the war, 
gone through two hundred and twenty-four edi- 

^Aulai'd et Bayet: Morale, Part I., p. 85. 
' Compayre : Elements d'Insf ruction Morale et Civique. 

80 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

tions ; ^ and a number of other books character- 
ized by antagonism to Germany have enjoyed 
wide sales.^ Nevertheless, there is no mention 
of revanche in certain books where it might 
easily have been introduced, while in others it 
has received but the barest recognition, the 
slightest of allusions; to the authors of such 
works, apparently, the doctrine has not become 
a burning ideal. Furthermore, there has been 
no enforcement of the teaching of revanche or 
of criticism of Germany, so far as I have found, 
in the school programs published before the 
war. Therefore such instruction has lacked the 
systematic character and the uniformity of the 
teaching whose aim has been to form a psy- 
chological preparation for the national defense. 
Furthermore, the doctrine of revanche in the 
schools has been modified by the influence of 
certain ideals and principles which cannot be 
discussed in the present chapter but which will 

^ Geographie (Premiere Annee), Cours Moyen, p. 29. 

'Blanchet: Histoire de France. 196th edition in 1904; 
RocheroUes: Les Secondes Lectures Enfantines, 46th edi- 
tion in 1904; Jost et Braeunig: Lectures Pratiques, 17th 
edition in 1899 ; Chalamet : Jean Felber, 48th edition, date 
not given; Lanier, Rogeaux et Laborde: La France et ses 
Colonies. Cours du Certificat d^fitudes Primaires, 30th edi- 
tion in 1905, etc. 

81 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

be dealt with later. Suffice it to say here, then, 
that the country has not lent complete support 
to bellicose teachings. 

Possibly, however, the future will see a 
change in this respect. At any rate, if report 
be time, the inculcation of hostility toward Ger- 
many bids fair to become general. According 
to word received in this country in the autumn 
of 1915, the Ministry of Public Instruction has 
distributed *Ho all the schoolteachers in France 
a manual of information on what they should 
have in mind in teaching history to their 
classes." In this manual, Paul Deschanel, 
President of the Chamber of Deputies, recalls 
the atrocities of 1870, declares that the gener- 
osity of France has caused her to forget too 
easily, and advises the teachers not to allow 
the lessons of the great war to pass from the 
minds of the children now growing up, as easily 
as the lessons of the Franco-German War were 
allowed to pass from the minds of their elders.^ 
Thus, if this evidence can be trusted, antago- 
nism to the ^^Boches" is being transmitted sys- 
tematically and officially to yet another genera- 
tion of Frenchmen. 

^ New York Times for September 18, 1915. The item is 
cabled from Paris and is dated September 17. 

82 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

It would, indeed, be easy to condemn this 
sort of instruction wholesale ; but there is some- 
thing ludicrous in the attitude of the armchair 
moralist who ventures to sit in judgment on 
the wickedness of those who are attempting 
seriously to render a service to their Father- 
land. Without impropriety, however, the out- 
sider may tentatively inquire whether the pos- 
sible advantages of such teaching outweigh its 
possible disadvantages. The doctrine of re- 
vanche does not, indeed, lack point or definite- 
ness. Its dissemination in the schools would 
naturally incline a larger number of French- 
men than otherwise to take up the cudgels 
against Germany. Presumably it would in- 
crease willingness to support a large army and 
would supply a cogent argument for the tedi- 
ous years of military training preparatory to 
actual warfare. It might lend a fury of effec- 
tiveness to the fighting of the French when at 
last the enemy should appear at the gates. 
Thus it would tend to foster a certain kind of 
loyalty to the Fatherland. 

On the other hand, there must always lie a 
grave danger to society in education thus tinc- 
tured with chauvinism. Even though this sort 
of instruction has not been universal it has 

83 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tended to breed in the hearts of many French- 
men suspicion of the good faith of their neigh- 
bors, while it has naturally weakened German 
confidence in the peaceful intentions of France. 
For, of course, it was well known in the land 
beyond the Rhine that Frenchmen were incul- 
cating hostility toward Germany. Further- 
more, it is in a soil of mutual suspicion and ill- 
will that modern warfare breeds most easily. 
'^The causes of war in the future," wrote ex- 
President Eliot several years ago, ^^are likely 
to be national distrusts, dislikes, and apprehen- 
sions, which have been nursed in ignorance, and 
fed on rumors, suspicions, and conjectures 
propagated by unscrupulous newsmongers, un- 
til suddenly developed by some untoward event 
into active hatred, or widespread alarm which 
easily passes into panic." ^ But if unscrupu- 
lous journalism is dangerous, how much more 
so is that chauvinistic instruction which in the 
impressionable years of life creates a militant 
bias from which biology itself makes escape dif- 
ficult after manhood has been reached! That 
the sufferings and passions of war should now 

^ Eliot, C. W. : Some Roads Toward Peace. Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace. Division of Inter- 
course and Education. Publication No, I, p. 14. 

84 



HOSTILITY TOWARD GERMANY 

incline the French to transmit to their children 
their present feelings of bitteniess against the 
invaders of their country is natural. But let 
us hope that when the smoke of today's con- 
flict has at last cleared away, that noble and 
generous people, to whose humanitarian ideals 
the world already owes so much, will hasten the 
day of universal peace through an education at 
once fair-minded and tolerant, just and forgiv- 
ing. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE TEACHING OF LOYALTY TO THE REPUBLIC 

On the fourth of September, 1870, France be- 
came a republic for the third time. Two days 
before, at Sedan, the gaUantiy of French arms 
had yielded to the efficiency and bravery of 
Prussian discipline. The mediocre adventurer 
who had followed the star of destiny to the 
throne of empire had fallen into the hands of 
the enemy. The news had come to Paris, had 
been communicated to the Chamber of Depu- 
ties, and this body ''in the midst of a glacial 
silence"^ had voted the dethronement of Na- 
poleon III. The power of the man who had 
been at the head of the French nation since 
1848, first as president, then as emperor, had 
fallen like a house of cards. Now, on the fourth, 
a throng of people — a mob, if you w^ill — burst 
into the hall where the Assembly was sitting. 
There w^ere cries of ''Down with the Empire!" 

^ De Coubertin : The Evolution of France under the 
Third Republic, p. 3. 

86 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

^^Long live the Republic!'' The leaders of the 
opposition were seized, were marched through 
the streets of Paris to the Hotel de Vllle. There 
the Republic was solemnlj^ proclaimed. Thus 
suddenly, after the French manner, was initi- 
ated that form of government which has served 
France for more than forty-five years. 

It was to all appearances but a fragile bark 
that was thus launched on the stormy seas of 
warfare and politics. There were many in 
those early days who felt that the Republic 
would founder ere she had well begun her voy- 
age. There have been many since who have 
predicted that she could never hold her course. 
For from the outset she has been threatened 
by grave dangers. First it seemed that the ship 
of state might fall afoul of the rock-ribbed 
principle of monarchy. This might take the 
form of a Legitimist restoration, an acknowl- 
edgment of Bonapartist claims to empire or the 
lifting to power of some new adventurer. Then 
there were the lowering clouds of clerical dis- 
favor, perhaps not seriously endangering, but 
at any rate overshadowing the safety of the 
Republic. Thirdly, tlie new government might 
be engulfed in the whirlpool of social revolu- 
tion. In the angry tempest of war now raging 

87 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

these dangers take on new significance; and 
France is fortunate in having safeguarded 
herself against internal crisis by an education 
of loyalty, as she has armed herself against 
external crisis by an education in patriot- 
ism. 

For some years after the Franco-German 
War the menace of monarchical restoration lay 
heavy on the hearts of those who loved the Re- 
public. The National Assembly, chosen to de- 
cide the question of war or peace with Germany, 
contained a majority of monarchists; for the 
peasant electors had feared that the Republi- 
can party would attempt to prolong the strug- 
gle. Naturally this Assembly aimed to re- 
establish a throne in France. Therefore it con- 
tinued to sit after it had completed the task for 
which it had been convened. But its members 
were divided in regard to candidates. Some 
supported the Bourbon, the 'legitimate" line, 
others the House of Orleans, while still others 
remained loyal to the dynasty of the Bona- 
partes. Furthermore, the Assembly found an 
obstacle to the accomplishment of a monarchical 
restoration in the person of Adolphe Thiers, 
the astute old gentleman who for the time being 
held the office of President of the Republic. 

88 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

Himself a monarchist, a former minister of 
Louis Philippe, Thiers felt the Republic to bo 
conducive to internal tranquillity. It was he 
who invented the happy f onnula, ' ' The Repub- 
lic is the form of government that divides us 
least.'' He therefore advocated its continu- 
ance. He succeeded in converting many depu- 
ties to his views, and the monarchists, alarmed 
for their cause, brought about his resignation 
in 1873. 

In that year the prospect seemed bright that 
a king would soon be seated on the throne of 
France. Between Legitimists and Orleanists an 
agreement was being arranged. The Comte de 
Chambord, the Bourbon claimant to the throne, 
was childless, and so consented to acknowledge 
as his heir the Comte de Paris, who represented 
the House of Orleans. But a seeming trifle 
spoiled the plan. The Comte de Chambord, in- 
heritor of Bourbon pride and Bourbon obsti- 
nacy, refused to accept the tricolor flag, insist- 
ing on the fleur-de-lis, that ancient emblem of 
absolutism. No amount of persuasion could 
make the old man change his mind, and to 
his decision the monarchists perforce must 
yield. 

Nevertheless they did not lose heart, but took 

89 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

such measures as seemed best suited to the ulti- 
mate triumph of their cause. A law fixed the 
president's term of office at seven years. Dur- 
ing this long period much might happen. For 
example, Chambord might die, and the more 
tractable Comte de Paris would then become the 
candidate of two monarchical parties. Mean- 
while a supposedly staunch royalist, Marshal 
MacMahon, was elected president. Alas for the 
hopes of those who would fain be ruled by a 
king! Republican influence grew steadily dur- 
ing MacMahon 's presidency, and he, finding 
himself utterly at odds with the Chamber of 
Deputies, resigned in 1879, a year before the 
normal expiration of his term. Immediate dan- 
ger of one-man rule ceased, and frightened Re- 
publicans breathed easily again. 

The peril to the existing government was re- 
vived a few years later, however. The three 
years from 1886 to 1889 constituted a period of 
nervous political tension. Scandals in the house- 
hold of the president, petty bickerings in poli- 
tics, colonial ambitions of which many disap- 
proved, and the storm-attended secularization 
of education brought discontent and aroused en- 
mity toward the Republic. Wiseacres pointed 
out that no form of government in France since 

90 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

1789 had lasted more than eighteen years; they 
saw no reason why the Eepublic should be an 
exception. Hence the French love of change, 
the French tendency to hero-worship, fastened 
themselves on the person of the dashing Gen- 
eral B^oulanger. This handsome and popular 
**Man on Horseback" appeared quite willing to 
play the role of dictator, which destiny seemed 
to have assigned him. For a time he filled 
Republican leaders with apprehension. But he 
lacked the courage for a coup d'etat ^ and fear- 
ing to face the charges of conspiracy brought 
against him, fled to Belgium where he later 
committed suicide. The Eepublic emerged from 
the fiasco stronger than ever. Nevertheless the 
vague shadow of Caesarism ever lurks in the 
background of French politics. '^Nervous Ee- 
publicans . . .'' says the Abbe Dimnet, '^ dread 
the possibility of having to love another dic- 
tator." ^ 

Naturally enough, therefore, the public school 
has come to the rescue of those who would pre- 
vent the national tendency to hero-worship from 
hypnotizing the mind of France. It may sur- 
prise admirers of Napoleon I to learn how 
badly he fares at the hands of the writers of 

^ Dimnet : France Herself Again, p. 72. 

91 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

French textbooks. True, he is admitted to have 
been a great captain/ a wonderful admin- 
istrator and legislator.- One writer goes so 
far as to say that '^his institutions, his ardent 
love for France, the services he had rendered, 
should cause his faults, harshly expiated, to be 
pardoned.''^ But this, the only really com- 
mendatory summary of Napoleon ^s character I 
have found in the textbooks, is as nothing in 
comparison with the avalanche of condemna- 
tion which has overwhelmed the Corsican^s 
name. ^^When I teach you that Napoleon I 
reigned from 1804 to 1815, I contribute to your 
instruction,'' says Compayre, *'but when I show 
you that Napoleon I was an ambitious man, an 
egotist, who for the satisfaction of his vanity 
made millions of men perish, I contribute to 
your education."* Napoleon is criticized for 
the war with Spain, for the Russian campaign, 

^ Blanchet et Pinard : Cours Complet, p. 528 : ibid., pp. 
543, 544; Jallifier et Vast: Cours Complet d'Histoire. 
Cours Troisieme. HLstoire Contemporaine, p. 177; La- 
visse: Livret d'Histoire, p. 38; Aulard et Bayet: Morale, 
Part I, p. 170. 

2 Jallifier et Vast, op. cit., p. 177 ; Lavisse : Livret d^His- 
toire, p. 39. 

^ Pigeonneau : Histoire de France, p. 217 (10th edition, 
1882). 

* Elements d'Instruction Morale et Civique, p. 34. 

92 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

for the final loss of his conquests,^ for his piti- 
less censorship of the press,- for his inability 
to endure contradiction,^ for his persecution of 
the Eepublicans who refused to serve him.^ It 
is said that he lacked political insight, spilled 
the blood of France in unreasonable and unjust 
wars, and changed to hatred the love with which 
that country had inspired Europe/"' In com- 
menting on the conclusion of the Egyptian cam- 
paign a writer says: ^^ There returned from 
the Orient a young hero, . . . who, everywhere 
conqueror of nature and men, wise, moderate, 
religious, seemed born to enchant the world. 
. . . Nevertheless, after some years, this wise 
man, now changed to a fool . . . immolated a 
million men, . . . drew Europe upon France, 
which he left vanquished, drowned in her own 
blood, . . . desolated. Who could have fore- 
seen that the wise man of 1800 would be the 
madman of 1813? Yes, one could have fore- 
seen it by remembering that absolute power 

^ Ibid., p. 24; Lavisse: Livret d^Histoire de France, Opus- 
cule du Maitre, p. 32; Lebaigne: Le Livre de PEcole. 
Cours superieur, p. 248. 

2 Bernard et Thomas : Resume, p. 166. 

» Ibid. 

*Aulard et Debidour: Notions d'Histoire, p. 279. 

• Lef ran^ais : Lectures Patriotiques, p. 247. 

93 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

carries in itself an incurable madness/'^ 
The historian Lavisse, after commending him 
for the institutions that he established, con- 
cludes, ' ' But in founding equality he forgot lib- 
erty. He desired to rule France, as he did his 
soldiers, without contradiction. He treated as 
public enemies all those who attempted to re- 
sist him, and who claimed, even timidly, the 
liberties which the Constituent Assembly had 
given to the people. His own will he recognized 
as the sole law. His pride finally destroyed 
him; he was the artisan of his own ruin, and 
after so many victories and conquests, he left 
France smaller than he had found her, thus 
demonstrating that a nation commits an irrep- 
arable mistake in abandoning itself to one man, 
even when that man has received the gift 
of genius.*' ^ Thus for his pride, for his ego- 
tism, for his despotism, the Corsican who gave 
his name to an era has been held up to the youth 
of France as a warning. ^^Let us admire his 
military genius,'* says the author of a histori- 
cal text, ^^but let us not desire to find again a 

1 Lebaigue : Le Livre de VEcole. Cours Superieur, p. 248, 
quoting Thiers. 

2 Lavisse: La Nouvelle Deuxieine Annee d^Histoire de 
France, p. 336. 

94 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

new Bonaparte. He has done too much evil to 
France. ' ' ^ 

Louis Napoleon shares the opprobrium which 
attaches to his uncle's name. ^'Inconceivable 
irony of revolutions!" exclaim the authors of 
a school history. ''He [Napoleon III] was 
promised the presidency of the Second Repub- 
lic because he was the nephew of him who 
destroyed the first." ^ His coup d'etat of De- 
cember 2, 1851, by means of which he paved the 
way for the establishment of the Empire, is said 
to have been a wicked violation of his oath, a 
crime against the state.^ School children have 
not been allowed to forget the martyrdom of 
the deputy Baudry, who was killed while pro- 
testing against the coup d'etat, at the very mo- 
ment when he was adjuring the soldiers to re- 
fuse to violate the law.^ "Better to be killed 
in doing one's duty," says Paul Bert, "than to 

^ Xormand : Biogi-aphies et Scenes Historiques, p. 208. 

- Bernard et Thomas : Resume Chronologique de THis- 
toire des Fran^ais, p. 189. 

* Aulard et Debidour: Notions d'Histoire, pp. 336-337; 
Lefrangais: Lectures Patriotiques, pp. 247-248; Villain, 
Comtois et Loiret, op. cit., p. 135; Lavisse: La Nouvelle 
Deuxieme Annee d'Histoire de France, p. 270. 

*Burle: L'Histoire Nationale Racontee aux Enfants, p. 
56; Bert: Llnstruction Civique, p. 78. 

95 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 



or? 5 



live in wealth and power after having violated : 
the law and proved false to one's oaths like 
Louis Bonaparte."^ 

So, too, his foreign policy has received se- 
vere condemnation. Especially is he held re- 
sponsible for causing the Franco-German War,- 
for Sedan,^and for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine.* 
^'Napoleon III declared war without rhjone or 
reason, on the Russians, the Austrians, the Mex- 
icans, the Prussians," says one writer, *^and 
finally he brought about the loss of Alsace and 
Lorraine, to say nothing of the billions of in- 
demnity that had to be paid." ^ '*The imperial 
government," says another, ^'had ill prepared 
France for a: war which its policy had rendered 
inevitable. ' ' ^ 

This severity of criticism has, indeed, been 
tempered by a more tolerant attitude in some 
of the more recent textbooks, which tend to 

^ Bert : L'Instruction Ci\aque, p. 78. 

2 Ibid. ; Blanchet et Pinard : Coiirs Complet, p. 594 ; Burie : 
L'Histoire Nationale Racontee aiix Enfants, p. 65; Auge et 
Petit: Histoire de France. Cours Moyen, p. 179. 

^ Bernard et Thomas, op. cit., p. 189 ; Villain, Comtois et 
Loiret: La Lecture du Jour, p. 135. 

*Bert: L'lnstruction Civique, p. 25. 

5 Ibid. 

^ Blanchet et Pinard : Cours Complet, p. 594. 

96 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

stress his weakness rather than his wicked- 
ness. ^'The emperor was good, with a good- 
ness which amounted to feebleness/'^ accord- 
ing to one of these texts, but he '^ sacrificed to 
his dynastic and personal interests the sacred 
interest of his country." ^ Thus has education 
dissipated something of the glamour that has 
hung so long over this djmasty of adventurers. 
The public school has distinctly impeded the 
progi'ess of the Bonapartist propaganda in 
France. 

Attacks on the two Napoleons, however, do 
not constitute the sole evidence of the deter- 
mination of textbook writers to exorcise from 
the hearts of future citizens possible desires for 
monarchical rule. It is noteworthy that a long 
list of the great men of France given in a cer- 
tain school manual does not include a single 
ruler, not even Charlemagne or St. Louis.^ 
Gerard condemns monarchical government as 
the form farthest removed from the ideal.'* 
^ompayre says that a king or emperor is al- 

^ Jallifier et Vast: Cours Complet d^Histoire. Cours de 
Troisieme. Histoire Contemporaine, p. 404. 

2 Ibid., p. 415. 

3 Hanriot : Vive la France, pp. 218-250. 
* Gerard : Morale, p. 196. 

97 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

ways more disposed to give heed to his own 
wants, or to show complacency toward cour- 
tiers, than to consult the public interests.^ The 
possibility of a monarchical revolution is thus 
brought home to the youth of France by the au- 
thors of a school reader: 

^^Ah, well! you will say, we can be tranquil 
now. The Republic is firmly established ; no one 
wishes to attempt to overthrow it. History re- 
plies to you: ^Have you forgotten the coup 
d'etat of the 18th brmnaire, 1799, and of the 
second of December, 1851, and the Napoleonic 
despotisms . . . ? Have you forgotten the Bou- 
langist movement which — in spite of the awak- 
ening of Sedan — came near submerging all the 
country, and crushing it anew under a soldier's 
boot? Who assures you that we shall not see 
again, grouped around a ^liberator,' a preten- 
der, those people who are at all periods ac- 
complices of movements of violence? 

^'This peril, always to be feared, is for us to 
avoid. ' ' ^ 

For reasons of this sort, the two historians, 
Aulard and Lavisse, diametrically opposed as 
are their views in many respects, unite in urg- 

^ Elements d'Instruetion Morale et Civique, p. 169. 

2 Villain, Comtois et Loiret : La Lecture du Jour, p. 204. 

98 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

ing the future citizens of France not to vote 
for deputies who would seek to subject the 
country to the rule of one nian.^ 

Possibly there has been little real danger of a 
coup d'etat in twentieth-century France; but if 
there has been any, the war has inevitably in- 
creased it. It is reported that the royalist finds 
himself in greater favor than formerly. The 
successful general, too, receives the plaudits of 
all France, and moves in an atmosphere of hero- 
worship. Indeed it is said to recommend Jof- 
fre in the eyes of his civil superiors that he is 
not too spectacular, not inclined, apparently, 
to take advantage of the luster which attaches 
to his name. Yet there are those who fear even 
Joffre's power. "Whatever danger, however, 
there may be of a new ^'Man on Horseback," 
that danger has been much diminished by the 
teachings of the school. Children have been 
taught to look with horror on the man who 
would use France to further his own ambitions. 

^ Lavisse : La Nouvelle Deuxieme Annee d'Histoire de 
France, p. 404; Nationalism is unmercifully condemned in 
Aulard et Debidour: Notions d^Histoire, p. 382, "Le nation- 
alisme n'est autre chose que le Boulangisme reconstitue 
(sans Boulanirer), par les cesariens, les royalistes, les cle- 
ricaux, c'est a dire les ennemis toujours acharnes — mais tou- 
jours impuissants — de nos libres institutions." 

99 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

^^Clericalism — That is the enemy." It was 
Gambetta who thus pointed his accusing finger 
at that power which he believed was subtly 
striving to undermine the growing strength of 
the Eepublic. And indeed the ancient friend- 
ship between throne and altar had not ceased 
with the downfall of Napoleon III. Not with- 
out justification is the contention that in those 
years of doubt before the Eepublic had fully 
come to its own, zealous servants of the Church 
were influencing the children to a belief in mon- 
archy. The bloody days of June in 1848, the 
Commune of 1871, argues a Catholic textbook 
of this period, have led many virtuous people 
to an aversion for Eepublican rule.^ Monarchy 
is essential to peace and the establishment of 
the European equilibrium.- The school must 
be freed from the influence of the Church — so 

^Colart: Histoire de France, p. 206. 

^ Ibid., Introduction, p. 9 ; Colart attacks Gambetta di- 
rectly. "A cause de ses attaches an parti radical, il ne peut 
empecher Fenvahissement des differentes administrations 
par les declasscs de la faction. De la tant de scandales; 
dilapidations par certains foumisseurs, generaux impro- 
vises, \iolences contre les hommes d'ordre, municipalites 
ignorantes et audacieuses, exces sanglants a Lyon, a Mar- 
seille, a Perpignan," p. 26. See also Bert, P.: L'lnstruc- 
tion Religieuse dans TEcole, p. 57; Zevort: Troisieme 
Republique, pp. 35, 97. 

100 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

thought Republicans — before the government 
would cease to be endangered by clericalism. 

Public education was captured from the 
Church in the early eighties, as has already 
been pointed out; and the Republic was free to 
use the school to carry out its own aims. Never- 
theless there were those who were not satisfied, 
who still felt the Church to be a menace to the 
state. They wanted the government to cease 
paying salaries to the clergy; they desired the 
extinction of private religious schools. Indeed, 
in the excitement that followed the Dreyfus 
case, opposition to the Church became almost a 
mania. The extreme anti-clerical found it diflB- 
cult to forgive his Maker for pretending to ex- 
ist, while the hope of immortality was con- 
strued into an insult to the Third Republic. 

It is not necessary to discuss here the details 
of the complex final struggle between Church 
and State. The separation was ordered by the 
laws of 1905 ; and another act provided that by 
1914 all teaching by religious orders should 
cease. In the conflict the public school was 
theoretically neutral. The primary school 
teacher was definitely instructed through the 
official programs to avoid anything in lan- 
guage or attitude that might wound the re- 

101 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

ligious beliefs of the children confided to his 
care, or that might trouble their hearts ! ^ Tol- 
erance was one of the great ideals transmitted 
to the Third Republic by the Revolution. To 
that ideal, Republicans maintained they would 
be true. 

Practically, however, there can be no doubt 
that the lay school was used actively to safe- 
guard the state against the reiil or supposed 
peril of clericalism. Neutrality was violated. 
An alarmed pedantry insisted on striking from 
a popular Latin grammar the expression '^Deus 
est SanctuSj^^ ^ and in a school edition of La 
Fontaine's Fables, the latter part of the sen- 
tence ^^ Petit poisson deviendra rjrand, si Dieu 
lui prete vie'' was changed to ^' Si Von lui prete 
vie/'^ But such changes, foolish though they 
might be, the children themselves would pass 
over unnoticed — unless indeed they were pre 
cociously inclined to text criticism. Uncon 



I 



^ Plan d' Etudes des J^coles Primaires Elementaires (1887-3 
1909), p. 42: ibid., pp. 41, 45; ibid., 1882, p. 35: Plan 
d^Etudes . . . des Ecoles Primaires NormaleSy 1905, p. 6: 
Plan d^ Etudes . . . des Ecoles Primaires Supcrieures, 1909, 
p. 47. 

2 Chatterton-Hill : Decline of the French Republic, Nine- 
teenth Century, Vol. 72, pp. 273 ff. 

3 Ibid. 

102 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

scious of the expurgation of the Deity, their re- 
ligious beliefs would remain as before. But 
what of the little lady trained to a trustful faith 
in the Catholic Church as the sole road to sal- 
vation, who reads in a book of moral instruc- 
tion the following passage : 

*^No one belief in regard to God, the origin of 
the world and the destiny of Man is accepted 
by all thinking beings: on these questions we 
can but make suppositions. 

^ ' Three great religions are shared by the ma- 
jority of men: Buddhism, Christianity, Mo- 
hammedanism. These three religions are not in 
accord on any dogma. Christians themselves 
are divided into Protestants, Roman Catholics 
and Greek Catholics, etc. These are not in ac- 
cord in belief. 

^^This proves that no one knows the whole 
truth, so it is foolish and criminal to wish to 
persecute someone who does not share our be- 
liefs. Let everyone believe according to his 
feelings. Let everyone be free to believe or not 
to believe."^ 

A mature mind might not be disturbed by 
such teachings, but they are well adapted to 
plant in the heart of a child the germs of doubt 

^ Payot : La Morale a TEcole, p. 231. 

103 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

and distrust. Furthermore, certain textbooks 
suggest opposition to Catholicism more di- 
rectly by pointing to the shortcomings of the 
Church in the past. Compayre is particularly 
skillful at this sort of insinuation, clothing it 
in a thin disguise of impartiality. Paul Bert, 
too, tells how the Catholics persecuted Non- 
conformists, showing a woodcut to illustrate 
the dragonnades in the Cevennes, Protestants 
hanging by the neck, while a sleek priest stands 
comfortably by.^ It is not hard to understand 
why, when the manuals of Compayre and Bert 
first appeared, about 1882, the voices of Cath- 
olics were raised in furious protest.^ A more 
recent text of moral and civic instruction by 
Professor Aulard and a colleague shows an even 
stronger anti-Catholic bias. *'The morality 
taught in this manual,^' admit the authors, ^4s 
laical and positive, that is to say, independent 
of any religious confession and of any meta- 
physical system regarding the unknowable. ' ^ ^ 
They teach specifically that it cannot be proved 

^Bert: L'Instruction Civique, p. 136. 

^Buisson: La Lutte Scolaire (chapter by Dessaye), pp. 
268 ff. 

3 Aulard et Bayet : Morale et Instruction Civique, Aver- 
tissement. 

104 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

scientifically that God exists.^ They call atten- 
tion to the persecutions and intolerance of the 
Church in the past,^ while by means of a '^Dia- 
logue between a Jesuit Father and a Virtu- 
ous Man" they score the Jesuit order for its 
^"doctrine of equivocation."^ The popularity 

iPart I, p. 150. 

2 Ibid., pp. 156, 157, 161, 164. 

3 Ibid., pp. 111-112. 

"Dialogue between a Jesuit Father and a Virtuous Man." 

"I wish now lo speak to you," said the Jesuit, "of the 
easy means which we have used to avoid sins in conversa- 
tion. One of the most embarrassing things is to avoid 
lying, especially when one is anxious to have something 
false believed. In such case our doctrine of equivocation 
serves admirably, which permits the use of ambiguous 
terms, causing them to be understood differently from what 
one understands them oneself. But are you clear as to 
what must be done when one finds no equivocal words?" 

"No, Father." 

"So I thought," he said; "that is not very well known. 
It is the doctrine of mental reservations: One can swear 
that one has not done a thing, even if one has really done 
it, with a mental reser\^ation that one has not done it on a 
certain day, or that one has not done it before being bom." 

"Why, Father, is not that a lie and even perjury?" 

"No," said the Father, "and there is another even more 
certain means of avoiding falsehood. And that is, after 
having said aloud 'I swear I have not done that,' to add 
under one's breath ^today\ You can easily see that that is 
telling the truth." 

"I confess it is," said I, "but perhaps we would find that 

105 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of this book is indicated by its wide salc.^ 
Thus have the over-zealous writers of texts ^ 
attempted to safeguard the government against 
a foe once powerful, but a foe whose sharpest 
fangs had been drawn some years before Pope 
Leo, of blessed memory, commanded the faith- 
ful of France to accept the Republic.^ Yet 
there is little probability that the psychology 
of patriotism and loyalty, described in the pres- 
ent work, would ever have developed had the 
school remained under the control of Mother 
Church. 

If the devotee of Republican government 

telling the truth under one's breath means telling a lie out 
loud!" (Adaj)ted from Pascal.) 

^ In 1902 the sale had reached 63,000 copies. 

^ See further Aulard et Debidour: Notions d'Histoire 
Generale et d'Histoire de France, pp. 135, 137-140, 155, 187; 
Villain, Conitois et Loiret : op. cit., p. 195; Belot : La R^- 
publique Frangaise, p. 47; ibid., La Vie Civique, pp. 52, 
53, 200; Despois et Labcrennes: Lectures Morales, pp. 341- 
347. Belot : La Vie Civique, pp. 201-203, comments freely 
on the law of 1905. The schoolmaster in a dialogue says: 
"The separation of Church and State is a liberal measure, 
destined to complete the work of secularization which the Re- 
public had undertaken and to assure the definite triumph of 
liberty of conscience." To which the pupil replies: "I do 
not see why there are people hostile to a law as generous 
and as liberal as that of the 9th of December, 1905." 

3 This was in 1893. 

106 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

fears the influence of monarchist and cleric, he 
is not disposed to dismiss lightly the restless 
discontent of the workingman. To the good 
bourgeois of France, revolutionary socialism 
must appear, not as a distant cloud on the hori- 
zon, disquieting but little a people basking in 
the sunshine of prosperity, but as a smoldering 
volcano, which, in time of national excitement, 
may burst into eruption. For France has had 
two fearful lessons — the awful days of June in 
1848 and the terrible Commune of 1871. Each 
of these revolts was signalized by fratricidal 
fierceness, bloody street fighting, incendiary 
fires and dreadful suffering. Each left a leg- 
acy of hatred between bourgeoisie and prole- 
tariat. But the Commune was the harder to 
forgive; for it came on the heels of a great 
national disaster ; it was another sword, thrust 
deep into the wounded, weeping body politic. 
Europe looked on amazed; and angry France 
crushed the outbreak with a rigor heightened 
by hot resentment. 

For some time after the Commune the forces 
of discontent remained quiescent. Then came 
a new development of socialism, out of which 
grew syndicalism. Syndicalism, dissatisfied 
with the older traditions of socialism, is **bent 

107 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

on conferring upon trade unions, grouped more 
or less closely in a General Confederation of 
Labor, the powers which now belong to the 
Republican and middle-class state/' ^ The syn- 
dicalist leaders have lost confidence in the bal- 
lot ; they have used the strike effectively to at- 
tain immediate results from employers, while 
they have preached preparation for open 
war, at some later day, against the capitalistic 
classes of society. They have taught anti-mil- 
itarism, even anti-patriotism, and have frater- 
nized with the workingmen of other countries. 
Today these men are fighting their German 
*^ brothers'' in the trenches — the Marseillaise 
has had its victory over the Internationale. But 
not long before the great war broke out it was 
feared that syndicalism might bring a dissolu- 
tion of the union, the mariage de raison, be- 
tween the laboring class and the republic.^ 

In many a textbook writer the Third Repub- 
lic has found a doughty champion to defend 
her against the danger of the social revolution. 
Compayre, for example, in the manual of moral 
and civic instruction to which reference has 

1 Bourgeois, in Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XII, p. 
128. 

2 Ibid. 

108 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

been made, thus attempts to prick the bubble 
of the laborer's discontent. Georges, the youth- 
ful hero of the book, writes to his former in- 
structor his impressions of a workingmen's 
congress which he has been attending at Mar- 
seilles. ^'I shall not conceal from you that I 
am moved by the liveliness of their com- 
plaints. . . . They trace the most desolate pic- 
tures of the situation of the laborer." To his 
fears the master replies, ^'How . . . could one 
hear without protest this new appeal to the 
Revolution? How tolerate this sophism . . . 
that there can be no social progress without 
violent revolution? Do you not understand, 
Georges, that it can no longer be a question of 
revolution, since the citizens enjoy the rights of 
suffrage?"^ Certain authors teach that the 
June Days and the Commune were mistaken 
attempts to overthrow the existing order, even 
that they were terrible crimes. ^ Other writers, 

^ Elements, etc., pp. 181-183. 

2Duruy, V.: Petite Histoire Generale, pp. 247-248; 
Blanchet et Pinard : Cours Complet, p. 579; Blanchet: His- 
toire de France, p. 246 ; "Of all insurrections of which his- 
tory has preserved the memory'/' says Lavisse, "the wicked- 
est surely was that of March, 1871, which took place under 
the very eyes of a conquering enemy." La Nouvelle Deux- 
ieme Annee d^Histoire de France, p. 390. 

109 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

while acknowledging the right of laborers to 
strike, nevertheless caution against the abuse 
of that right, '^for, my children, if strikes are 
sometimes useful, often also they have been dis- 
astrous and have degenerated into violence."^ 
In order to increase the loyalty of the working 
classes to the Republic, attention is. also called 
to the benefits which it has conferred on them. 
^'It is not astonishing that workingmen should 
be attached to the Republic; it is the Republic 
which has emancipated them, which has pro- 
claimed them gro\vn-up, that is to say, free from 
all tutelage, free to form associations, free to 
defend their interests as all previous govern- 
ments had held them in defiance/'^ **Do not 
blush to be a workman,'' says Laloi, **but do 
not despise on the other hand, those who do 
not work with their hands, nor think of them 
as parasites." ^ 

Sometimes syndicalism and certain doctrines 

1 Fouillee: Francinet, p. 332; Laloi: La Premiere Annee 
d'Instruction Morale et Civique, p. 64; Belot: La Vie Ci- 
\4que, p. 234; Gerard: Morale, p. 218. 

^ Petit et Lamy: Jean Lavenir, p. 284; Aulard et Debi- 
dour: Notions d^Histoire Generale et d^Histoire de France, 
p. 405. 

* La Premiere Annee d'Instruction Morale et Civique, p. 
64. 

110 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

of socialism are rather severely criticized. 
True, there is a disposition on the part of a 
number of writers to regard cooperative so- 
cieties with favor and to impress children with 
the advantage of these for the working classes.^ 
^^Cooperation/' says Belot, ^4s born of sym- 
pathy, of sociability, as much as of self-inter- 
est ; it can contribute powerfully to the strength- 
ening and fostering of morality. '' ^ On the other 
hand, the same man says of the syndicates that 
'^they ought not to inject themselves into po- 
litical or religious struggles, nor should they 
transform themselves into instruments of des- 
potism or tyranny. . . . Syndicalism creates no 
monopoly. Nevertheless there exists a doctrine 
which w^ould extend the decisions of syndicates 
to all the workmen of the same industry. ' ' ^ 
The old idea of the equal distribution of goods 
is refuted by the ancient argument that such 
distribution could not be lasting because of the 
inequalities of human character.'* ^^ Property 

^ Compayre : Elements, p. 186 ; Fouillee : Francinet, pp. 
327-332; Petit et Lamy: Jean Lavenir, pp. 286, 353-357; 
Belot: La Vie Civique, pp. 219-279; Ganneron: Tu Seras 
Citoyen, pp. 193-194. 

* La Vie Civique, p. 279. 

* Le Peuple, p. 39. 

♦Gerard: Morale, p. 122; Compayre: Elements, p. 185. 

Ill 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

should be inviolable and sacred like the work of 
which it is the product." ^ Pontsevrez opposes 
the communism of Plato. ^'This total sacri- 
fice of the individual to the ideal state is con- 
trary to nature.'' He holds that Saint-Simon- 
ism is also a step backward because it sup- 
presses individual liberty, and reasons that to 
do away with the right of inheritance would be 
to destroy an important incentive to work. '^It 
would be an injustice to those who by their 
work have acquired property and by their wis- 
dom have economized for tlie sake of their chil- 
dren. Society wouhl not be the gainer; for not 
being sure of handing down his goods, the in- 
dividual would work less, would produce less.'' ^ 
Compayre sums up the arguments against so- 
cialism to his own satisfaction and presumably 
to that of his juvenile public by stating that 
*' those who protest against capital have only 
one purpose — to acquire capital themselves."* 
The essence of Pontsevrez 's view is that **of 

Compayre adds that such distribution "etant la violation 
du droit de ceux qui possedent deja elle est la negation de 
toute justice." Rather a naive argument for a disciple of 
the Revolution of 1789 ! 

^ Gerard : Morale, p. 122. 

2 Cours de Morale Pratique, pp. 97-99. 

^ Elements, p. 185. 

112 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

the ideas of the philosopher the crowd has re- 
tained only that which flatters its passions.''^ 
Thus it is clear that socialism has been com- 
bated in the schools of France, though it has 
not been sho^vn that such teaching is uniform 
and systematic. The effect of all these com- 
ments on the problem of capital and labor has 
been, however, to warn a large proportion of 
the rising generations of France against the 
use of violence as a means for reforming the 
existing order. These teachings, then, have 
made for the stability of the Third Republic. 

Not only by pedagogic warnings against the 
perils lurking in the shadows of the national 
life, however, but also by a more direct incul- 
cation of loyalty to the Revolution and the Re- 
public has the present form of government been 
strengthened. From one point of view the Third 
Republic is simply the logical sequence of the 
French Revolution, the effective instrument for 
putting into practice the principles of 1789. 

! Hence opposition to the Revolution implies op- 
position to the Republic; acceptance of it im- 

I plies allegiance to the regime now in force. 
**The Revolution has put an end to all the 
iniquities of which I have given you a sum- 

^ Op. cit., p. 98. ~^ 

, 113 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

mary view," says Boniface, *^ since the Repub- 
lic has completed the work of the Revolution, 
by replacing the royal authority with the sov- 
ereignty of the people." ^ 

What the Revolution has accomplished for 
France the same author thus recites : 

'^The year 1789 appears to you very far off, 
my children. It is a memorable date which you 
ought to have always before your eyes and at 
the bottom of your hearts, to glorify it, and to 
honor the memory of those to whom we owe the 
Revolution. 

'^It is the Revolution which has suppressed 
the unjust privileges reserved to the nobility 
and to the clergy ; which has abolished the royal 
omnipotence, established Justice and Liberty 
for all, equality among all Frenchmen, who, 
from being subjects, submissive to the royal 
authority, were made citizens, members of a 
free State. 

^^It is the Revolution which has given birth 
to the great idea of La Patrie. 

^*To the deputies of the States-General who 
made the Revolution of 1789 is due our grati- 
tude. 



jy 2 



^ Pour le Commencement de la Classe, p. 39. 
2 Ibid., p. 38. 

114 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

So other writers tell of the benefits wrought 
by the Revolution, taking particular pains to 
explain the meaning of ^^Libertj^, Equality, and 
Fraternity. ' ' ^ The ' ' Declaration of the Eights 
of Man and of the Citizen,^' that essence of the 
spirit of the Eevolution, that program of nine- 
teenth-century political reform, is frequently 
quoted in full in the textbooks, to show the 
deep and true significance of the movement of 
1789.- ^^The Declaration of the Rights of Man 
and of the Citizen, '^ says Belot, ^^is only pa- 
triotism in maxims, and the principles of 1789 
have fortified patriotism." ^ In 1901 the Cham- 
ber of Deputies passed a law by five hun- 
dred and forty-one votes to one that the Decla- 
ration should be posted in all the schools of 

^Gerard: Momle, pp. 303-308; Mabilleau: Cours din- 
stiniction Civiqiie, pp. 25-32 ; Yillain, Comtois et Loiret : La 
Lecture, p. 375; Bert: L'Instruction Civique, pp. 111-132; 
Lemoine et Loiret, op. cit., p. 27; Compayre: Elements, pas- 
sim; Anlard et Debidoiir: Notions d'Histoire Generale et 
d'Histoire de France, passim; etc. 

^Pavette: La Vie Civique, pp. 7-10; Belot: La Vie 
Ci^'ique, pp. 5-77; Despois et Laberennes: op. cit., pp. 396- 
398; Mabilleau, Levasseur et Delacourtie: Cours dlnstruc- 
tion Ci\'ique, pp. 16-24; Manuel: Livre Nouveau, pp. 47- 
50; Aulard et Debidour: Notions d^Histoire Generale, etc., 
front and rear covers. Jost et Braeunig: Lectures Pra- 
tiques, pp. 253-254; etc. 

^ La Vie Civique, p. 74. 

115 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

France.^ Sometimes writers depict vividly the 
miseries of the Ancient Regime, contrasting 
these with the political happiness which France 
has enjoyed through the Revolution.^ Indeed, 
Paul Bert goes so far as to say, ^ ^ All that I have 
taught you up to this point, all that I have led 
you to love, to admire, 'tis the Revolution that 
has wrought it. ' ' ^ 

Though almost inseparably interwoven with 
attachment to the Revolution, love for the Third 
Republic itself is even more fundamentally es- 
sential. Such love is not necessarily the same, 
however, as devotion to La Patrie. Even a 
royalist might be a good patriot, ready to die 
in his country's cause, though unalterably op- 
posed to the present form of government. 
Hence the precept, ^^Aimez la France/^ must be 
supplanted by the injunction, '^Love the re- 
publican institutions which France has given 
herself." * As the benefits wrought for the peo- 

^ Rouvier : L'Enseignement Public en France au Debut 
du XX^ Siecle, p. 34. 

2Fouillee: Francinet, pp. 221-223; Bert: Llnstruction 
Civique, pp. 131-165. Historians tend to stress this con- 
trast. 

^ L^Instruction Civique, p. 135. 

* Laloi : La Premiere Annee d^Instruction Morale et 
Civique (43d edition, 1900), p. 161. 

116 



1 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

pie by the Eevolution are recited, so also are 
those which are due to the Eepublic.^ Thus 
Belot says: 

^*The Eepublic, government of the people, by 
the people, is a superior foiTQ of social organi- 
zation. Much more than monarchy, the Repub- 
lic assures liberty and equality, it guarantees 
men more justice and permits them more 
fraternity; it opens the way more surely 
to all beneficent reforms and to all prog- 
ress. . . . 

' ' The Third Eepublic must be the final French 
Eepublic. All citizens worthy the name must 
repel all thought of accepting anew a king, an 
emperor or a dictator. . . . 

^^The Eepublic has repaired the disasters of 
war; it has rebuilt the army and navy; it has 
restored the national credit; it has placed our 
frontiers in a state of defense; it has created 
and progressively fostered an immense colonial 
domain; it has arranged for the country power- 
ful alliances and solid friendships, and has in- 
creased her prestige; it has attempted to 

^ Auge et Petit : Histoire de France, de Louis XI a nos 
Jours. Cours Moyen, pp. 190-191; Belot: La Republique 
F'ranQaise, p. 3; Boniface: Pour le Commencement de la 
Classe, p. 39. 

117 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

lessen the sufferings of the peasant, to labor for 
industrial and commercial development; it has 
enlivened and extended considerably the work 
of education; it has given an impulse hitherto 
unknown to the labors of foresightedness and 
of fraternity. ^ ^ ^ 

Compayre represents his hero, Georges, as 
going from a rural district to Paris, where 
the citizens inquire what the feeling in his 
part of the country is toward the Repub- 
lic: 

^'Do your compatriots begin to understand 
the benefits of the Republic? Do they know 
that it is the best form of government? That 
imperial and royal monarchies have finished 
their terms of existence in France? '' 

Georges soothes their fears by guaranteeing 
that his fellow-inhabitants are growing more 
and more devoted to the Republic.^ 

Thus through suggestion or direct precept 
pupils have been led to see the reasonableness 
of the regime under which they live and have 
been taught attachment to it. The supreme 
duty of such devotion is expressed by one 
writer in the words of Montesquieu: 

^ La Vie Civique, pp. 78-79. 
2 Elements, p. 169. 

118 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

*^ Virtue in a Eepublic is a very simple thing; 
it is love of the Eepublic." ^ 

The official programs give to the teacliing of 
loyalty to the Revolution and the Republic a 
more systematic and more general character 
than it would otherwise have. It is provided, 
for example, that in the first year of the ele- 
mentary primary schools, civic instruction shall 
consist of ^'very simple explanations, in con- 
nection Avith reading, of words calculated to 
awaken an idea of nationality, such as : citizen, 
soldier, army, fatherland, commune, canton, 
department, nation, law, justice, public force, 
etc.'^^ In the third year are to be taken up, 
among other things, *^The national sovereignty; 
explanation of the republican device: Liberty, 
Equality, Fraternity." ^ According to the study 
plans of the higher primary schools for 1909 
and of the primary normal schools for 1910, the 
teaching of morality is to include: ^'The re- 
publican foiTn of government; its principle and 

^ "La vertu, daiis une republique, est une chose tres sim- 
ple; e'est Famour de la republique; c'est un sentiment et 
non une suite de connaissances." Despois et Laberennes, pp. 
> 76-377. 

^ Organisation Pedagogique . . . des J^coles Primaires 
tlementaires, 1887-1909, p. 24. 

» Ibid., p. 47. 

119 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

its superiority. Issued by our consent and mod- 
ified by our will, there can be nothing arbi- 
trary about it."^ Thus through these and 
other official orders ^ the state has endeavored 
to train the youth of France to look upon the 
Eepublic as the natural and best form of gov- 
ernment. 

From the textbooks examined, then, it ap- 
pears that the public school, captured from the 
Church after many a bitter battle, has lent itself 
to the protection of the ordjer existent in France 
since 1870. Through the influence of the printed 
page, not without its power over older minds, 
l)ut authoritatively effective with the ignorant 
and immature, the children of France have 
learned the danger of intrusting the political 
fortunes of the country to a Caesar, whether he 
claims the throne by divine right and the sanc- 
tion of history or tempts by illusory promises 

^ Plan (T^tudes . . . des Scales Primaires Superieures de 
Garqonsy 1909, p. 48; Plan d^^tudes . . . des £coles Pri- 
maires Normales, 1910, p. 6. 

2 See passim in the foregoing progi'ams ; also Plan 
d^J^tudes et Programmes d^Enseignement des J^coles Nor- 
males Primaires, 1889, p. 8; Plan d^Etudes . . . de VEn- 
seignement Secondaire Special dans les Lycees et Colleges, 
Prescrit par Arrete du 10 aout, 1886; Plan d^EJtudes . . . de 
VEnseignement Secondaire de Gargons, 1902, passim. 

120 



TEACHING OF LOYALTY 

and hopes of national gloiy. Theoretically 
taught to be tolerant toward all forms of relig- 
ion, these same children have, not infrequently, 
been influenced against Catholicism, whose 
power has constituted, in the eyes of many 
fearful Republicans, a danger to the state and 
to the institutions for which the state has stood 
since 1870. Sometimes, too, they have been 
warned against thoughts of social revolution, 
even against certain socialistic doctrines. They 
have been led, also, to look upon the Revolution 
of 1789 as a liberation of the French people 
from the shackles of feudalism and monarchy. 
They have been told that the Third Republic is 
continuing the glorious work of that Revolu- 
tion, and has already wrought many benefits for 
those living under its enlightened rule. Little 
wonder that a critic of the existing regime has 
said that the Republic should place over the 
doors of every lay school the motto, ''Super 
hanc petram cedificabo meam ecclesiam'^ (Upon 
this rock I will build my Church), Matthew 
16, 18. 

In times of peace and comfort it may seem 
as if the state needed no such psychological de- 
fenses as those I have described. It may seem 
as if the opposition of the disaffected were but 

121 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

the froth and foam on the surface of the deep, 
untroubled waters of contentment. But in the 
day of crisis the case is different. The history 
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has 
shown that in time of national stress and strain, 
and especially in time of war, the machinations 
of malcontents may shake the government of 
the modern state to its very foundations. In 
such periods the country has need of all the 
loyalty, all the patriotism of her citizens. Well 
for her, indeed, if she has patiently built up 
this loyalty and patriotism in her years of 
tranquil prosperity! 



CHAPTEE V 

CONTENDING FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 
I. PATRIOTIC VERSUS SCIENTIFIC HISTORY 

'*The true school of patriotism," says Com- 
payre, ^4s history, national history."^ The 
tendency of the historian is to reflect the spirit 
of his age, and it is the spirit of the nineteenth 
century that Compayre thus voices. In the 
Fiddle Ages the task of the chronicler was to 
lorify the work of God, as exemplified in the 
lioman Catholic Church. His successor of 
Eeformation and post-Reformation times used 
history to buttress the particular sect or creed 
to which he happened to have given his alle- 
giance. Still later party politics dominated a 
goodly proportion of historical writing. In the 
nineteenth century, however, the primary po- 
litical principle has been that of nationality. 

^ Elements d'lnstruction Morale et Civique, p. 60. See 
also Pecaut: L'Education Publique et la Vie Nationale, 
p. 128; Lavisse: Ullistoire a VEcole, Revue Pedagogique, 
Vol. 45, pp. 211 ff. 

123 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Therefore many nineteenth-century historians 
have been intensely patriotic. But devotion to 
scientific scholarship has also been a prominent 
characteristic of modern civilization. So 
through the conflict between these two ideas 
there has come about a struggle in the French 
schools between scientific and ^^ patriotic'* 
history. 

The modern belief in the principle of na- 
tionality originated in the Revolutionary and 
Napoleonic era. In the dark days of 1793, when 
France felt herself forced *'to establish the 
despotism of liberty in order to crush the 
despotism of kings," a fervor of patriotism 
swept over the country, and the disciples of 
^* Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" went forth 
to conquest. Militant missionaries, they aimed 
to spread by force of arms the new gospel of 
the Revolution. Then later, when these hosts 
had become the pliant instrument of Napoleonic 
ambition, when desire for glory had supplanted 
the early enthusiasm for liberty, the national 
feeling awoke in other countries, in reaction 
against the threatened despotism of the con- 
queror. From that time the spirit of intense 
patriotism, born in the pangs of national crisis, 
became a fundamental article of Europe's po- 

124 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

litical faith. To this faith many historians of 
every civilized country have subscribed, foster- 
ing and developing it through their art, so pe- 
culiarly adaptable to this task. 

After the Franco-German War the study of 
histoiy naturally became a most effective in- 
strument of the educational renaissance. For 
some twenty years after the defeat of France 
history in the schools ministered faithfully and 
continuously to patriotism.^ Not that the au- 
thors of textbooks forgot entirely the spirit of 
impartiality. A number of them apparently 
made little attempt to point a patriotic moral. 
They allowed the narrative, for the most part, 
to speak for itself. Nevertheless they aroused 
a fighting devotion to the Fatherland through 
their emphasis on military events. 

This spirit of impartiality is well illustrated 
in a popular historical text of MM. Blanchet 
and Pinard (edition of 1888).- There is but a 
small amount of polemics or apologetics in this 
book. Take, for example, their attitude toward 
the monarchical principle, which, as citizens of 



^ Duniy : Ecole et Patrie, p. 15. 

^ Cours Complet d'Histoire de France, a TUsasre des 
Ecoles Primaires Superieures. (Adopted for the schools of 
Paris.) 

125 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

a republic, they might well have been expected 
to condemn unreservedly. They do, indeed, 
severely criticize Napoleon I, though acknowl- 
edging his great militaiy qualities. On the 
other hand they praise Louis Philippe and have 
scarcely an unfavorable word for Napoleon III. 
Furthermore there is in the book no hint of 
revanche. A similar impartiality characterizes 
the texts of Victor Duruy,^ Brouard,^ Ducou- 
dray,^ and other authors. In such schoolbooks 
history is not wholly subordinated to national- 
ism or the desire to safeguard the state. But 
they may be classed as patriotic histories since 
they stimulate courage and devotion through 
their emphasis on battles and campaigns. 

In the works of certain other writers of his- 
torical texts, however, the patriotic purpose is 
clearly revealed. Thus M. Burle, the author of 
a popular little historical text, takes occasion 
to glorify the Revolution,^ to suggest revanche,^ 

^ Duruy, V. : Petite Ilistoire de France. 

2 Brouard : Lemons d^Histoire de France et d'Histoire 
Generale, a TUsag-e des ficoles Primaires. Cours supe- 
rieur. Livre du Maltre. 

^ Ducoudray : Recits et Biographies d'Histoire de France. 
Cours preparatoire. 

* L'Histoire Nationale, Racontee aux Enfants, etc., p. 48. 

^ Ibid., p. 59. 

126 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

to condemn the empire of Napoleon HI/ 
and to praise the Third Republic.- He even 
goes so far as to maintain that the Triple Al- 
liance (Germany, Austria, Italy) was directed 
against France,^ while the Entente Cordiale 
between England and France he holds to be the 
most serious guaranty of the maintenance of 
peace in the world.^ ^^Love the Fatherland, 
and labor for it," is the moral that he draws 
from the narrative of his country's past.^ 

In similar fashion lessons of patriotism have 
been taught in other school histories such as 
those of Auge and Petit,^ Zevort,"^ and Foncin.^ 
Two textbook waiters, however, stand out 
above their fellow-craftsmen as exponents of 
the pragmatic conception of history. Diver- 
gent as are their points of view in many re- 
spects, the celebrated scholars Lavisse and Au- 
lard are at one in believing that the study of 

^ Ibid., p. 65. 

2 Ibid., p. 65. 

3 Ibid., p. 65. 
* Ibid., p. 68. 
» Ibid., p. 71. 

•Auge et Petit: Histoire de France, Cours elementaire; 
ibid., Cours moyen. 

^ Zevort: L'Histoire Nationale Racontee aux. Adolescents. 

*Foncin: Textes et Reeits d^Histoire de France (Pre- 
miere annee). 

127 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

history should foster loyalty and patriotism* 
They do not, however, emphasize the same les- 
sons. Lavisse is concerned primarily with the 
military defense and the military prestige of 
France. From the defeats of 1870 he draws the 
conclusion that Frenchmen must render strong 
their country,^ that all economy in regard to 
the army costs dear.^ He does not hesitate to 
assert that the first duty of France is not to 
forget Alsace and Lorraine, who do not forget 
her.^ He further maintains — as has already 
been pointed out in another connection — that 
the Germans hate France, that they are cease- 
lessly manufacturing guns and cannon, that 
they have long been preparing for war against 
their neighbor.^ Thus his widely used histori- 
cal texts have warned of the coming war, have 
sho^\^l the necessity of preparedness. 

Aulard, on the other hand, sounds a different 
note. It may seem strange to class this much- 
criticized scholar among the essentially patri- 
otic historians. In 1903 he was denounced by a 

^ Livret d^Histoire de France. Opuscule du Maitre, p. 42. 

2 La Nouvelle Deuxieme Annee d'Histoire de France, p. 
404. 

3 Ibid., p. 406. 

* Ibid., pp. 404-405. 

128 



FOECES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

member of the Chamber of Deputies for having 
written an anti-patriotic manual of moral and 
civic instruction, the deputy reproaching him — 
according to Aulard's o^vn account — with hav- 
ing discredited the military service by saying 
that it was ^^an obligation very heavy and very 
painful."^ But he is devotedly loyal to the 
Third Republic and uses history to strengthen 
allegiance to its institutions and its principles. 
In a little historical text, written with the aid 
of a colleague,^ he puts before his youthful pub- 
lic the benefits of that Revolution to whose 
study he has devoted so many years and of 
which he is so ardent a disciple. Nationalism, 
too, he attacks as a reincarnation of Boulan- 
gism.^ Furtheimore, his interpretation of his- 
tory appears to enable him to bring many an 
indictment against the Catholic Church,^ whose 
services to society seem to him by no means to 
offset her intolerance toward her enemies. In 
his criticism of the Church he even goes so far 
as to say that the Pope's protest against the 
visit of the President of France at the Court 

^ Aulard : Polemique et Histoire, p. 14. 
2 Aulard ct Debidour: Notions d'Histoire Generale et 
d'Histoire de France. 
» Ibid., p. 382. 

* Ibid., pp. 135, 138, 139-140, 155. 

129 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of Victor Emmanuel in 1904 has rendered pop- 
ular among the French people the idea of a sep- 
aration of Church and State.^ In general, while 
Lavisse points his prophetic finger toward a 
foreign foe, Aulard attempts to guard against 
influences which he believes to be dangerous to 
the internal w^elfare of the state. They are in 
agreement, however, in warning the children 
of France against the danger of intrusting the 
destinies of the nation to a dictator.^ Further- 
more, though Aulard is pacific in tone, he be- 
lieves, with Lavisse, in a defensive patriotism, 
ready to resist to the death any attempted in- 
vasion of the Fatherland.^ 

For some tw^enty years after the disasters of 
1870, as has been pointed out, patriotic history 
held the field without dangerous rivalry.* Nor 
did its influence cease at the end of that period ; 
the lessons of devotion to the Fatherland con- 
tinued all along to be taught through many of 
the historical texts used in the schools. But 
toward the end of the nineteenth century the 

1 Ibid., p. 135. 

2 Ibid., pp. 279, 281, 336-337, 382 et passim; Lavisse: 
Livret d'Histoire, pp. 38-39; Ibid., La Nouvelle Deuxieme 
Annee d'Histoire de France, pp. 370, 404; etc. 

^ Aulard : Polemique et Histoire, p. 136. 
^ Duruy : Ecole et Patrie, p. 15. 

130 



FORCES IN FEENCH EDUCATION 

cold breath of scientific scholarship began to 
chill the warm glow of patriotic history. A 
new school of writers, who knew not Sedan, 
raised the demand that history should serve 
truth, and truth alone, and that the develop- 
ment of civilization should be emphasized at the 
expense of ' 4 'histoire-bataiUe. ^ ' But while this 
theory of the subject was discussed by educa- 
tors from about 1890 on, it was not until 1902 
that it seriously affected the official study-plans 
of the schools.^ The program for secondary 
instruction appearing in the latter year greatly 
restricted the attention to be given to battles 
and wars.^ The amount of diplomatic history 
was also to be reduced, while that of customs, 
ideas, social usages and political institutions 
was to be increased. A preponderant position, 
also, was given to modem times and to the 
study of contemporary society.^ A similar 

^ Johnson : Teaching of History, p. 126. 

2 Plan d^ Etudes et Programmes d^Enseignement dans les 
Lycees et Colleges de Gargons, 1902, p. 81. ^^On n'insistera 
:'as sur le recit des luttes de la Revolution et de FEmpire. 
Dans les gnerres princi pales le professeur choisira un ou 
denx exemples de batailles." See also pp. 42, 66, 106, 107, 
etc. 

* Seignobos, Langlois, etc. : LTnseignement de PHis- 
toire, p. 60; Smith, H. F. : History in the French Lycee, 
p. 17. 

131 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

spirit animated tlie programs of the Jiigher 
primary and the primary normal schools, pub- 
lished a few years later.^ According to the lat- 
ter the purpose of the study of history is *'to 
awaken the scientific spirit. " ^ In general the 
programs marked a victory of the scientific, 
evolutionary conception of history over the 
military, patriotic conception. 

Probably the best series of texts written to 
conforai with the new study-plan was that of 
Seignobos.^ Customs and characteristics he 
has stressed, but has given comparatively little 
attention to battles and wars. Thus in one of 
his books he has devoted twenty pages to early 
life and society in Rome, while allowing but five 
for the Peloponnesian war.^ So, too, MM. Jal- 
lifier et Vast, authors of another set of histori- 
cal textbooks, state that they have sought '*to 
fix the attention of pupils on customs and in- 

^ Plan d^^tudes . . . des Ecoles Superieures de Gargons, 
1909, p. 15; Plan d^Etudes . . . des Ecoles Normales Pri- 
maireSj p. 68. 

2 Ibid., "6veiller Fesprit scientifiqiie, qui consiste, dans 
Fetude de Thistoire, a obsers^er et a rapprocber des fails, 
a se defier des impressions personuelles eomme des deduc- 
tions logiques, a eviter Fesprit de systeme et les hypotheses 
hasardeuses/' 

3 See Smith, H. F. : History in the French Lycee, p. 28. 
^ Ibid., p. 30. 

132 



1 



FOECES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

titutions, to substitute the history of civiliza- 
tion for history exclusively political.^ Such 
treatment of the life of the past is altogether 
too cold for the volatile Abbe Dimnet, who 
holds that historical writers of this type were 
* ' so Germanized in their thoughts and teaching 
that it was difficult for their hearers to get at 
what might be left of sentiment under their 
scientific principles."^ That this method of 
teaching history might become a national men- 
ace is the view of Professor Duiniy, who dis- 
gustedly exclaims, *'It is not by celebrating the 
benefits of the introduction of the potato or 
the invention of the weaving loom — pacificist 
themes of the first water — it is not by proclaim- 
ing Parmentier and Jacquard national heroes 
and benefactors of their countiy, more real than 
Louis XIV and Napoleon, that one imparts to 
souls the ^ spirit^ which helps in the fulfillment 
of certain difficult duties, like that of which, not 
without some profit for France, the fellow-sol- 
diers of Villars acquitted themselves at Denain, 
those of Dumouriez at Valmy."^ 

^ Jallifier et Vast : Histoire des Temps Modernes et 
Contemporains. Cours de premiere. Quatrieme edition, 
Paris, 1908. Preface, p. 6. 

^ France Herself Airain, p. 135. 

* Duruy, G. : Ecole et Patrie, p. 17. 

133 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

In the light of present events, however, it is 
not uninteresting to note that shortly before the 
great war a history which bowed the knee in all 
sincerity to scientific scholarship, which em- 
phasized the general development of civiliza- 
tion, rather than battles and campaigns alone, 
was taught in the schools of France. It has 
been said that the nationalist historian of the 
nineteenth century must bear a share of the 
blame for the catastrophe of today. * * Woe unto 
us! professional historians, professional his- 
torical students, professional teachers of his- 
tory," says the recent president of the Ameri- 
can Historical Association, ''if we cannot see, 
written in blood, in the dying civilization of 
Europe, the dreadful result of exaggerated na- 
tionalism as set forth in the patriotic histories 
of some of the most eloquent historians of the 
nineteenth century."^ Something of this re- 
sponsibility, however, must be lifted from the 
shoulders of those devotees of scientific schol- 
arship who would have their historical writings 
serve truth rather than nationalism. Cold and 
unsentimental their work may have been, but 
not chauvinistic. 

^ Stephens, H. M. : Nationality and History, American 
Historical Review, January, 1916, p. 236. 

134 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

Significant as the twentieth-century move- 
ment for the teaching of scientific history in 
France has been, however, its importance must 
not be exaggerated. The study of patriotic his- 
tory in the schools did not cease with the is- 
suance of the programs of 1902; and the 
years immediately preceding the present war 
saw a reaction toward this kind of instruction. 
Furthermore, it must be remembered that 
French history does not lend itself to the teach- 
ing of militant patriotism so easily as does that 
of Great Britain, that of Germany, or that of 
the United States ; for the France of today has, 
in a measure, repudiated the France of yester- 
years. If Jeanne d'Arc is glorified, anti-cleri- 
calism is offended. If the military exploits of 
Louis XIV are extolled, the monarchical prin- 
ciple is thereby exalted. If the schoolmen point 
with pride to Napoleon's achievements, hero- 
worship and Caesarism are suggested. On the 
other hand, love of country and the militarj^ 
spirit can be, and have been, inculcated by other 
means, notably through moral and civic instruc- 
tion. *^I will not say," proclaims the scientific 
Seignobos, ^Svhy I seek in the teaching of his- 
tory neither lessons of morality, nor a school of 
patriotism, nor a collection of worthy examples 

135 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

. . . I do not say that these things cannot serve 
a purpose in education; but . . . they can be 
taught more effectively by other means than by 
history.'' ^ The use of these other means in the 
schools of France has lessened the necessity of 
making the study of history wholly subservient 
to patriotic ends ; and the possible danger to the 
national defense, of treating the subject from 
the scientific, evolutionary point of view, has 
been thereby diminished. 

II. PACIFICISM VERSUS NATIONALISM 

It has been shown in the preceding chapter 
that back of the movement to introduce a new 
kind of history into the schools lay the ideal of 
scientific truth and the theory of human evolu- 
tion. Closely associated with these and affect- 
ing, in some degree, not merely the teaching of 
history but the spirit of the school as a whole, 
was another principle — that of pacificism. Now 
in France ideals and theories are more than 
mere formulae ; there seems to be an insatiable 
desire on the part of their disciples to see them 
realized in practice. Therefore the nervous na- 

^ Seignobos, Langlois, etc.: L'Enseignement d'Histoire, 
pp. 2-3. 

136 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

tionalist viewed \\itli alarm the gro\\i:h of the 
cosmopolitan, pacificist spirit in France in the 
early years of the twentieth century. Further- 
more, the pacificist ideal had behind it, or more 
or less closely associated with it, certain politi- 
cal influences, such as anti-militarism, anti- 
clericalism and, above all, international social- 
ism. Out of this mixture of idealism and poli- 
tics arose what is kno\\Ti as the crisis of patri- 
otism in the schools. 

Modern pacificism, according to a recent 
writer, had its genesis in Revolutionary times. 
**It originated in the extreme left wing of the 
French Revolution. Its first representatives 
are found among the men of terror and blood 
who made themselves known and abhorred 
throughout the world as ^Jacobins.' " ^ In 
June, 1791, the Jacobins addressed a proclama- 
tion to the inhabitants of near-by countries: 
''Brothers and Friends — To you we announce 
peace, confidence, union, fraternity. English- 
men, Belgians, Germans, Piedmontese, Span- 
iards, soldiers of every people, the French 
and you constitute but a single people, a single 
family whose disunion is no longer pos- 

^ Kuhlmann : Pacificism as an Offspring of the French 
Revolution, Mid-West Quarterly, July, 1915, p. 397. 

137 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

sible." ^ During the whole of the Revolutionary 
period, even when humanitarianism seemed to be 
almost smothered beneath the greed and glory 
of Napoleonic conquest, the fighting French pro- 
claimed their message of death to inilers, but 
peace and brotherhood to peoples. Thus para- 
doxically the very movement from which sprang 
nineteenth-century nationalism gave birth to 
modern cosmopolitanism and pacificism. 

The humanitarianism of the Revolution, per- 
sisting during the nineteenth century, showed 
itself in the sympathy of Frenchmen for op- 
pressed nationalities in their struggle for inde- 
pendence and unification — for the Greeks, for 
the Poles, for the Italians, even for the Ger- 
mans. Shocked and disillusionized by the War 
of 1870, it remained in abeyance till about 
twenty years after Sedan, when it began to 
crystallize into a propaganda wliich struck at 
the very heart of the national ambitions and 
even of the national defense. The murmurings 
of anti-militarism and anti-patriotism took bold 
form, attracting the disturbed attention of 
those who loved the Fatherland. In 1891 the 
author of an article appearing in the Mercure 
d^6 jPrance wrote, *' Personally . . . I would not 

ilbid., p. 401. 

138 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

give in exchange for these forgotten lands [he 
spoke of Alsace and Lorraine] eitlier the little 
finger of my right hand, for it serves as a rest 
for my hand when I write, nor the little finger 
of my left hand, for it serves to flick the ash 
from my cigarette."^ Then, too, a prominent 
professor conducted an investigation at the 
ficole Normale Superienre as to whether patri- 
otism were a rational feeling and whether it 
would bear the test of psychological analysis.^ 
According to the Abbe Dimnet, ^'the cynical ex- 
pression of disdain for the attachment to one's 
country . . . became a sort of elegance ' ' during 
the last decade of the nineteenth century.^ ^^If 
it is necessary to speak frankly," says the 
writer whose indifference to the lost provinces 
has been quoted, ^'in a word, we are not pa- 
triots."* 

More significant than the sporadic utterances 
of 'intellectuals," however, was the spread of 
anti-militaristic, anti-patriotic doctrines among 
the workingmen. During the last years of the 

^ Quoted in Agathon : Les Jeunes Gens d^Aujourd'hui, 
p. 23. 

2 Dimnet: France Herself Again, pp. 134-135; Aga- 
thon : Les Jeunes Gens d'Aujourd'hui, ]). 23. 

^ France Herself Again, pp. 133-134. 

* Agathon, op. cit^ p. 24. 

139 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

nineteenth century and the early years of the 
twentieth the propaganda of the social revolu- 
tion found increasing favor among the syndi- 
calists. This was largely due to the influence 
of anarchists, always anti-patriots of the first 
water, who began to associate themselves with 
the workingmen's movement about 1895, and 
some of whom later became members of the 
governing committee of the General Confed- 
eration of Labor. Wearing the ^' false beards'^ 
of syndicalists, the anarchists penetrated into 
the councils of international socialism, from 
which they had previously been excluded. Here 
they were again able to make their dangerous 
teachings felt. The pacifici^^t theories of the 
intellectuals, the anti-governmental propa- 
ganda of the anarchistic syndicalists, the vague 
feeling of the laboring proletariat that the 
struggle of the future ought to be with employ- 
ers and rulers rather than with tlie working- 
men of other lands — all these elements were 
brought to a focus by the Dreyfus case. Here 
was an innocent man, degraded and held pris- 
oner on a lonely isle, that the so-called honor 
of the army might seem to bear no stain. Mili- 
tary influence sought to protect the real cul- 
prits, men of high military rank, at whose ex- 

140 



FOECES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

pense, however, Dreyfus was later rehabili- 
tated. Even before his innocence had been com- 
pletely established a storm of indignation 
broke out against the army, much of it passing 
easily from opposition to the army into opposi- 
tion to the state. 

Hence at the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
turythe old ideas of cosmopolitanism and pacifi- 
cism seem to have united with newer political 
and social influences to endanger the security of 
the country. ^'I seek to comprehend the mental 
state of the anti-militarist,'' says Professor 
George Duruy. ''This man is ordinarily a re- 
publican and a democrat, a socialist almost al- 
ways. He professes to love ideas of which these 
two words, republic and democracy, serve as 
the insignia: fraternity, justice, equality, lib- 
erty, freedom of conscience, etc. ' ' ^ Journals 
and societies directly or indirectly connected 
with syndicalism bore home to the workingmen 
their real or fancied grievances against the 
army and the state. Mobilization for war was 
to be the signal for the revolt of the proletariat. 
** Instead of taking up arms,'' so ran a procla- 
mation of the International Anti-Militarist As- 
sociation in 1908, ''you will use your cartridges 

^ Ecole et Patrie, p. 51. 

141 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

against the assassins who govern you and you 
will shoot them down without pity."^ Thus 
paradoxically a militant pacificism came to men- 
ace the Fatherland. 

True to its tendency to reflect, sooner or later, 
those forces which go to the making of the na- 
tional Geist, the French school has admitted 
the influence of nineteenth- and twentieth-cen- 
tury humanitarianism, cosmopolitanism and 
even pacificism. Certain textbooks, even though 
not of pacificist character, nevertheless voice 
protests against the spirit of aggression and 
of hatred. Thus M. Hanriot, who certainly 
does not forgot the lost provinces,^ says, **We 
are not of the land of hatred. Franco does not 
know how to detest anyone ; it would be repug- 
nant to her spirit to set up in her system of 
education hatred of the foreigner, and it is 
not we who will ever carry out against any 
people the ^Dolenda Carthago' of the implaca- 
ble Romans." ^ So, too, the patriotic historian 
Lavisse points out that to love one's country 

^ Quoted in Tardieu : La Campa^e Contre la Patrie. 
Bevue des Deux Mondes, July, 1913. 

2 Hanriot : Vive la France ! p. 124. 

^Ibid., p. 8; similarly, Despois et Laberennes, op. cit., 
p. 356. 

142 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

is not to desire to destroy neighboring countries 
or to rejoice in their misfortunes. ^^This na- 
tional egoism is called chauvinism; it has 
caused Frenchmen to commit terrible mis- 
takes/'^ Patriotism — according to another 
writer — in order to be a real virtue must be 
regulated by the sentiment of humanity,^ a 
view not very different from that of certain 
of the official programs, which require to be 
taught 'Hhe love of humanity and its recon- 
ciliation with duties toward the Fatherland." ^ 
Pacificism is not counseled in passages 
such as these, but there is an assumption 
that the ideals of patriotism and of the 
brotherhood of man ought to go hand in 
hand. 

In some textbooks, however, cosmopolitan 
and pacificist beliefs exhibit themselves more 
clearly. M. Desmaisons teaches frankly that 
above national brotherhood is human brother- 

^ Lavisse : Livret d'Histoire de France, Opuscule du 
Maitre, p. 45. 

- Petit et Lamy : Jean Lavenir. p. 249. "True Republi- 
ns," maintain the authors, "desire peace with all men 
i good will. During the Revolution they sang: 
'To the world will Frenchmen give 
Peace and Libei-ty.' " 
^ Martin et Lemoine : Lectures Choisies, p. 213. 

143 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

hood, more noble than the other.^ One author 
even stands sponsor for the sentiment of Mon- 
tesquieu: ^^If I knew anything useful to my 
country, yet prejudicial to Europe, I would re- 
gard it as a crime." ^ In other cases an outcry 
is raised against war and its attendant horrors. 
^'War is a frightful calamity. It has its origin 
in the instincts of barbarism," exclaim the au- 
thors of a school reader.^ ^^If you see two dogs 
who are barking and biting and tearing at each 
other," thus MM. Aulard and Bayet quote from 
La Bruyere, ^^you say, ^See those senseless 
animals!^ and you take a stick to separate 
them. 

^'If anyone told you that all the cats of a 
great countiy were assembled by the thousand 
in a plain and after mewing and caterwauling 
they dashed at one another with fury, and that 
after the melee there remained nine or ten 
thousand cats dead on the field of battle, would 
you not say : ' This is the most frightful thing 
I ever heard of.' 

^^ And if the dogs and cats said that they were 

^ Desmaisons : Pour le Commencement de la Classe, pp. 
147-148. 

2 Boitel : Trois Annees, pp. 1S8-189. 
^ Martin et Lemoine : Lectures Choisies, p. 213. 

144 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

fighting for glory would you not laugh heartily 
at the madness of these poor beasts? 

''Nevertheless the sole difference between 
the beasts and you is that they use only their 
teeth and their claws, while you have conven- 
ient instruments, with which you can make great 
wounds, from which the blood can pour even to 
the very last drop."^ 

Since war is so terrible it is the duty of 
France to preach horror of it and to render it 
impossible in the future by fostering the fra- 
ternity of peoples, by diffusing peacefully the 
principles of 1789. ^ So significant did Profes- 
sor George Duruy consider this sort of teaching 
that he asserted about 1907 that at that time 
the general tendency of the authors of primary 
school texts was to expurgate from their works 
anything of which pacificism might disap- 
prove.^ 

If cosmopolitanism affected somewhat the 
textbooks, however, its influence on a certain 
proportion of the teaching force of France was 

1 Aulard et Bayet : Morale, etc., Part I, pp. 95, 96. The 
same selection is to be found in Despois et Laberennes: 
Lectures Morales, p. 335. 

2 Aulard et Bayet, op. cit., Part II, p. 12. 
*Ecole et Patrie, p. 19. 

145 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

deeper and more striking. It was the fond 
theory of Jules Ferry in his dream of a lay 
school as the cornerstone of the Third Repub- 
lic, that the instructor of youth, passionately 
devoted to the state, would avoid the quag- 
mires of party politics. But his hopes were 
only partially realized.^ If the earlier teachers 
had something of the fanaticism of a lay priest- 
hood,^ forgetful of self in their zeal for France, 
a discontent gradually seeped in among certain 
of the younger men. Their meager salaries 
compelled them all too frequently to lead lives 
of penury.^ Their spirits rebelled and they 
lent a willing ear to the tempting teachings of 
international revolutionary socialism.* ** Ex- 
perience proves, '^ says a writer in the Revue 
de VEnseignement Pi'imaire, *^that the teach- 
ing body has nothing to gain by coquetting with 
the bourgeois parties ; it is its duty and its in- 
terest to turn to its natural ally: the laboring 
proletariat."^ M. Gustave Ilerve, a professor 
at the Lycee of Sens, wrote articles insulting the 

^ Goyau : Le Peril Primaire, Revue des Deux Mondes, 
Jan., 1906, p. 189. 
2 Ibid., p. 198. 
s Ibid., p. 194. 
^ Ibid., p. 196. 
^ Ibid., p. 197. 

146 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

French flag,^ and was the principal signatory 
of a manifesto calling on the soldiers of France 
to revolt in case war were declared.^ 

Herve was punished for his presumption,^ 
but his bold utterances met with sympathy 
among certain of his fellow-craftsmen. A con- 
gress of elementary schoolmasters meeting at 
Lille in 1905 professed adherence to his doc- 
trines, and at the same time passed anti-mili- 
tary resolutions."* Another such congress, a 
few years later, voted that the teachers' syndi- 
cates should subscribe to the Sou du Soldat, a 
fund of which one object was to encourage the 
desertion of soldiers. So strong was the feeling 
in the early years of the twentieth century that 
an educational journal actually demanded 'Hhat 
they banish from the school the religion of ^La 
Patrie/ '' Little wonder that there seemed to 
be a crisis of patriotism in education ! 

^ Bodley : Article on France in Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica, 11th edition. 
2 Journal des Dehats, March 7, 1908. 
» Ibid. 

* Bodley: Encyc. Brit., France; M. Chabot, in an ar- 

'■('le in the Revue Pedagogique, Vol. 46, p. 511, says, "Un 

.^^rand nombre d^instituteurs approuvent les articles ou M. 

Her\'e insulte le drapeau et preche la desertion ou la guerre 

■.vile.*' 

147 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Nevertheless the reader should not take too 
seriously this pacificist movement which cre- 
ated such excitement in France among many of 
those who dearly loved their country. In the 
first place, if cosmopolitanism has been taught 
in the schools, it has also been combated there. 
Lavisse points out that the national disasters 
ought to teach Frenchmen to love France first, 
humanity afterward.^ To be convinced of the 
falsity of the thesis of cosmopolitanism, argues 
another writer, one has only to compare what 
he receives every day from his country with 
what he receives from humanity.^ Gerard 
maintains that cosmopolitanism *' consists less 
in love of other men than in forgetfulness of 
duties toward the Fatherland. It flatters itself 
that it loves everybody, in order to have the 
right to love nobody."^ Finally, Compayre 
sums up the matter in his blunt way by stating 
that citizens of the world are egotists and 
idlers.'* 

Furthermore, even the authors of the pro- 

^ Lavisse : La Nouvelle Deuxieme Annee d'Histoire de 
France, p. 405. 

2 Pontsevrez : Cours de Morale Pratique, p. 125. 

3 Morale, p. 226. 
* Elements, p. 61. 

148 



FOECES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

tests against war which have been quoted have 
not taught a spineless doctrine of non-resistance 
to aggression. War for national defense, for 
justice, for liberty, they hold to be necessary 
and right. ^ Their expressions of pacificism 
seem to be intended as a sort of psychological 
leash calculated to hold in check those hot- 
headed spirits who would fain plunge the coun- 
tiy into unnecessary strife. There is appar- 
ently little idea of deifying humanitarianism 
at the expense of La Patrie. Then, too, it 
must be remembered that at the very time at 
which Professor Duruy was writing of the men- 
ace of pacificism in the school, new editions of 
older books, books like Foncin's geographies, 
were being issued, in which the militaiy spirit 
and revanche were clearly inculcated. A large 
proportion of such manuals had a wide sale. 
In general, however, it may be said that just 
before and just after the opening of the twen- 
tieth century, there was a tendency on the part 
of the writers of new schoolbooks to soften 
militant teachings by more pacific doctrines. 
Had this tendency grown, had the propa- 

^ Martin et Lemoine: Lectures Choisies, p. 213; Aulard 
et Bayet, op. cit., p. 971; Villain, Comtois et Loiret, op. 
cit., p. 214. 

149 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

ganda of the social revolution continued to 
spread through the discontented ranks of ill- 
paid teachers, there is no telling what might 
have resulted to the psychology of loyalty and 
patriotism. While politicians were bickering 
over the questions of militarism, clericalism and 
international socialism, however, and teachers 
were exercising, with louder voice than usual, 
their well-known avocation of complaining 
about their salaries, the nation began to awake 
to the reappearance of an ancient peril. On 
March 31, 1905, William of Germany steanied 
into the harbor of Tangier on his yacht, the 
Ilohenzollern. The emissary of the Sultan of 
Morocco he saluted as the representative of an 
independent sovereign, and turning to the group 
of German residents gathered at the pier in ex- 
pectation of his arrival, he said, ^'I am happy 
to greet in you the devoted pioneers of German 
industry and commerce, who are aiding in the 
task of keeping always in a high position, in a 
free land, the interests of the mother coun- 
try."^ It was a warning to France that the 
mailed fist of Germany would not permit un- 
questioned the extension of French influence in 
Morocco. 

^ Quoted in Gibbons : New Map of Europe, p. 72. 

150 



FORCES IN FRENCH EDUCATION 

In the next few years followed the Algegiras 
Conference, the Agadir incident, the French ac- 
quisition of a protectorate over Morocco, Ger- 
man anger thereat, and the increase of arma- 
ments in both countries. Contemporaneously 
vnth these developments came a rejuvenation 
of French patriotism,^ while the tide of pacifi- 
cism gradually ebbed. The year 1908, accord- 
ing to a ^vriter in the Revue Pedagogique, saw 
anti-patriotism among the teachers yield its 
tone of arrogance,- while the author of a book 
appearing in 1913 could say ^^one no longer 
finds ... in the Faculties, in the great schools, 
pupils who profess anti-patriotism. . . . The 
words Alsace and Lorraine call forth long ova- 
tions and each professor speaks of German 
methods only with prudence, for fear of mur- 
murs or hisses."^ In fine, according to the 
same author, the fundamental sentiment of 
youthful consciences had come to be faith in the 
Fatherland.'* The cloud which had overhung 

^ **Une aube, une grandissante aurore se leva sur Tob- 
scurissement de cet autorane 1905, ou notre jeunesse oom- 
prit que la menace allemande etait present.'' Agathon: 
Les Jeunes Gens d'Aujourd'hui, p. 30. 

2 Gerard-Varet : Revue Pedagogique, Vol. 54, p. 525. 

' Acratbon, op. cit., p. 29. 

* Ibid., p. 22. 

151 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

that psychology of patriotism which the state 
had fostered so carefully dissolved into mist 
when the country seemed to be threatened. 

What, then, was the net result of the humani- 
tarian, anti-militaristic movement in educa- 
tion ? To measure its influence with accuracy is 
of course impossible. Certain it is, however, 
that it did not penetrate the heart of France so 
deeply as excited patriots once feared it might. 
On the other hand it must have modified chau- 
vinism; it must have weakened the doctrine of 
revanche. Fundamentally, it seems to me, 
there has been a conflict between highly devel- 
oped nationalism, on the one hand, and the 
principle of fraternity on the other — that prin- 
ciple of the French Revolution which has been 
interpreted to mean cosmopolitan brotherhood. 
Since the Third Eepublic professes reason as 
its guide, since it acknowledges devotion to lib- 
erty of thought, it has not entirely subordinated 
education to a narrow nationalism but has al- 
lowed humanitarian doctrines, which many be- 
lieved to be dangerous to the state, to appear 
in the schools. Patriotic instruction in France 
has not been blindly enslaved by chauvinism. 

It is doubtful, however, whether the pacifi- 
cist movement in education seriously weak- 

152 



FOECES IN FEENCH EDUCATION 

eiied the psychology of the national defense. 
Love of countiy, belief in the obligatory mili- 
tary service, the government has all along ex- 
pected the teachers to inculcate, and has in- 
sisted on such instruction by means of the offi- 
cial programs and by a highly centralized 
system of school inspection. ^'We do not 
know," wrote M. Bougie several years ago, 
'* whether there ever existed a pacificist, even 
a fanatic, who preached seriously to his coun- 
try the doctrine of nonresistance to evil, and 
in consequence the necessary preliminary dis- 
armament. It is more than clear, at any rate, 
that such teachings could not possibly find a 
place in a national system of education. ' ' ^ 
Some measure of the excitement in regard to 
anti-patriotism in the schools must, then, be at- 
ributed to the exaggerations of alarmists. 
There was probably comparatively little seri- 
ous thought of leaving the countiy defenseless 
against aggression. 

The great war has revealed how insecure the 

.mposing structure of internationalism really 

was. The Gennan '^brothers" are held respon- 

ible for the failure of the French workingmen 

) unite against the forces of militarism. 

* Bougie : Solidarisme et Liberalisme, p. 216. 

153 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Herve is writing patriotic songs ; his young fol- 
lowers of other days are fighting loyally in the 
trenches. Infinitely pathetic in its resignation 
to a deferment of the dawn of better things is 
the ^'War Song of the French Workmen," 
which appeared in that once stout champion of 
staunch internationalism, the Bataille Syndi- 
caliste: 



The day that Germany opened up the abyss, 
One and only one word, peaceful, sublime, 
Was spoken by the one-minded people : 
'4t must be/' 

Dear workmen, put off your hope 
To do away with hunger and suffering: 
It must be.^ 

Thus pacificism has been engulfed in the 
maelstrom of soldiers' blood. 

^ Stoddard Dewey, in the Nation, January 13, 1916. 



CHAPTER VI 
PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

The great war has brought Germany be- 
fore the judgment seat of humanity. The 
world insists on knowing what manner of peo- 
ple this is whose enemies accuse her of the 
worst barbarities, whose friends laud her benev- 
olence to the skies. The seeker for truth stands 
bewildered before these' conflicting opinions. It 
is as unfair, however, to judge Germany by the 
excesses of some of her soldiers, or even by the 
seeming ruthlessness of her treatment of Bel- 
gium, as it is to draw a verdict from the propa- 
ganda of praise. Nor is the spirit of the works 
of Chamberlain, Bernhardi or Treitschke nec- 
essarily typical of the w^hole people. The Ger- 
man school, on the other hand, affords the fair- 
est field in which to discover the ideals of the 
empire of the Hohenzollern ; for Germany, be- 
yond all other modem states, has embodied 
national aspirations in its educational sys- 
tem, which, though not wholly free from the 

155 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

influences of tradition, custom and conserva- 
tism, recognizes in a degree elsewhere un- 
paralleled the value of education as a political 
instrument and a factor in national evolu- 
tion. Here it is that one finds the soul of Ger- 
many. 

Only extended investigation can reveal how 
fully her educational system exemplifies the 
spirit of Germany. The present study does not 
profess to be exhaustive. It has made no at- 
tempt, for example, to show how industrial and 
technical instruction has been developed to 
realize the ideal of national efficiency. A care- 
ful study of official plans of instruction and of 
many textbooks widely used in recent years in 
German schools, however, w^arrants the follow- 
ing conclusions : 

1. Patriotism, while not designated in the 
school curricula as a separate subject, has been 
systematically taught in connection with vari- 
ous studies, throughout all grades of instruc- 
tion, from the lowest common schools to the 
university. The military spirit dominates this 
sort of teaching. 

2. The school has fostered belief in the mo- 
narchical principle and a devoted loyalty to the 
Hohenzollem dynasty. Doctrines deemed dan- 

156 



PATRIOTISM IN GEEMAN EDUCATION 

gerous to the present form of government have 
been combated. 

3. Education has tended to develop national 
egoism through a glorification of German civ- 
ilization and German achievements, and a fail- 
ure to make due allowance for shortcomings. 

4. The school has toyed with the vision of a 
greater national destiny, suggesting the hope 
of increased power on land and sea. 

5. This apotheosis of Teutonism which has 
characterized German education has naturally 
been accompanied by a disposition to ignore or 
disparage other nations. 

These various features of German education 
suggest certain comparisons with the teaching 
of patriotism in France, while they furnish, at 
the same time, a partial explanation of the 
German's point of view in the present war, and 
of the process by which this viewpoint has been 
evolved. 

In imbuing the youth of Germany with pa- 
triotism in the various forms of its expression, 
an important part has been played by that pow- 
erful psychological stimulant, suggestion. Its 
subtle influence permeates many a textbook 
from cover to cover, conveying, now an impres- 
sion of the essential faultlessness of the Father- 

157 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

land, or again hinting at a national future 
more splendid, greater and more powerful than 
the Empire has yet known. Such suggestion 
is no doubt frequently unconscious on the part 
of the author, a natural development of his 
own hopes for his country, or of his pride in 
her achievements ; probably he would resent any 
intimation that he was, for example, advocating 
conquest, much as an American teacher would 
resent the imputation that she had been fos- 
tering hostility toward Great Britain, perhaps 
at the very moment when her pupils were at- 
tempting to enact on the playground some stir- 
ring scene from our own Revolution. Yet the 
psychological influence of such suggestion must 
at times have been more far-reaching and more 
fraught with dangerous possibilities than that 
of didactic precept. 

The use of the school as a training field of 
German patriots dates from the time of Prus- 
sia's regeneration. As has been previously 
stated, it was the spirit of this period of her 
rival's history which France has striven to 
emulate since 1870. In the hour when Napo- 
leon dragged in the mud the pride and glory of 
the state which had ' ' gone to sleep on the laurels 
of Frederick the Great," the philosopher, 

158 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

Ficlite, to whose inspiration his country owes 
so much, ^^set all his hopes for Germany on a 
new national system of education."^ Those 
years of preparation, which culminated in the 
Battle of the Nations and in Waterloo, were 
a period also of mighty effort to base the power 
of the state on the intelligent loyalty of the in- 
dividual citizen and soldier. Hence Prussian 
statesmen turned to that most picturesque of 
oddities, that most successful of failures, the 
one conspicuous schoolmaster in Europe who 
had been able to secure the love and loyalty of 
his pupils — Pestalozzi. The king. Stein, Fichte, 
Humboldt, and many other noble spirits organ- 
ized the movement to make of the school a great 
factor in the development of the nation. In all 
grades of instruction began the tendency to em- 
phasize eveiything German. 

Thus initiated and in a measure fostered un- 
der later Prussian rulers, patriotic instruction 
has been cherished with special care since the 
formation of the Empire. In this zealous 
policy the influence of the present Kaiser has 
been especially active and fruitful. On May 
Day, 1889, within a year after his accession to 
the throne, the Emperor sounded the keynote 

^ Paulsen : German Education Past and Present, p. 240. 

159 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

for school instruction thus: *'For a long time 
my attention has been engaged by the thought 
of making the school in its various grades, use- 
ful in combating the spread of socialistic and 
communistic ideas. Upon the school, first of 
all, will fall the duty, by cherishing reverence 
for God and love of the Fatherland, of laying 
the foundation for a sound conception of politi- 
cal and social relations."^ The follo\\ang 
year, at a great conference of educators, the 
young ruler expressed his dissatisfaction with 
the instruction then in vogue in the Gymnasien. 
It was not national enough to suit him, nor suf- 
ficiently adapted to the needs of modern times.^ 
In general he perceived some of the possibilities 
of education as a political instrument, and was 
intent on their realization. 

With the attitude of the Kaiser in these mat- 
ters the various Plans of Instruction, for com- 
mon schools — Volksschulen and Mittelschulen — 
and higher and normal schools, have ever since 
been in sympathy, though not always in com- 
plete harmony. In deference to his wishes the 

^ Schoppa : Die Bestimmungen . . . Betreffend die Volks- 
und Mittelschule, die Lehrerbildnnn: nnd die Priifunc: der 
Lehrer, etc. Edition for teachers, Leipzig, 1904, pp. 36 ff. 

2 Paulsen : Gennan Education Past and Present, p. 207. 

160 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

number of liours devoted to Latin in the Gym- 
nasien was decreased,^ while greater emphasis 
was laid on German.- The total hours given to 
Latin each week (for all classes) was reduced 
in 1892 from seventy-seven to sixty-two. It 
was raised in the Lehrplan of 1902 to sixty- 
eight, but German and history retained the 
number fixed in 1892, respectively twenty-six 
and seventeen.^ 

The significance of these changes as an ad- 
justment to the demands of nationalism lies in 
the fact that the Lelir plane have required the 
teaching of patriotism in connection with the 
study of German language and literature and 
of history. '' Instruction in German," accord- 

^ The following table shows the hours devoted to Latin 
each week in each of the nine classes in the German Gym- 
nasien for the years 1882, 1892, 1902 : 

YI V IV UIII GUI UII Gil 
1882 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 
1892 8 8 7 7 7 7 6 
"■^02 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 

Kratz Lehrplan, p. 25. 

2 Paulsen : op. cit., p. 209. The author of a recent article 
on "Pan-Germanic Education" says, "The present Emperor 

' did his utmost by the rescript of 1892 to impose the teach- 
ing of German, history, sfeography and sa^a." Randall, 

I Contemporary Review, November, 1915, p. 593. 

I • Kratz, op. cit., pp. 17, 25. 55. 

; 161 



:i 


01 


Total 


8 


8 


77 


6 


6 


62 


7 


7 


68 



I 

PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING ^ 

ing to the 1902 Lehrplan for the higher schools 
of Prussia, ^4s, along with instruction in re-li 
ligion and in history, of the greatest educa- 
tional importance. The task assigned to it is 
diflScult and can be fulfilled only by teachers, 
who, relying upon thorough understanding of 
our language and its history, transported by 
enthusiasm for the treasures of our literature 
and by patriotism {von vaterlandischem Sinne)^ 
know how to excite in the hearts of our youth 
ardor for German language, Gennan national- 
ity {deutsches Volkstwn) and GeiTuan great- 
ness of spirit {deutsche Geistesgrosse).^^ ^ Fur- 
thermore *^the special task assigned to instruc- 
tion in German of fostering patriotism {die 
Pfiege vaterldndlschen Shines) connotes for it 
a close connection with histoiy." ^ One of the 
chief purposes of the study of this subject in 
the normal schools, according to the official re- 
quirements for these institutions, is to *^aid the 
students in gaining the ability to impart such 
instruction in history as will promote patriot- 
ism in their young pupils. . . . The prospective 
teachers and instructors are to learn to under- 

^ Official Lehrplan e und Lehraufgaben fiir die hoheren 
Schulen in Preussen, 1902, p. 20. 
2 Ibid, p. 21. 

162 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

stand and love the Fatherland, its ordered life 
and institntions, that they may become quali- 
fied to arouse and to nourish in their pupils 
love for the Fatherland and for the ruling 
dynast3\''^ And of instruction in geography 
— ''As in history the highest object is the 
knowledge of the Fatherland and the compre- 
hension of its organisms, so, too, in geography 
the greatest stress is to be laid on the knowl- 
edge of the Fatherland, its character, its po- 
litical divisions, its civilization on the material 
side {materielle Kultiir) and its commercial re- 
lations with foreign lands." ^ Thus in Prussia 
as in France the teaching of patriotism has been 
officially enjoined. It is noticeable, however, 
that at the very time that Prussia was espe- 
cially emphasizing the nationalistic purpose of 
the study of history in the schools, the French 
programs of 1902 were laying stress on a his- 
tory scientific rather than purely patriotic, evo- 
■ lutionary rather than purely military.^ 
^ As is to be expected, the spirit of militant 



^ Schoppa : Die Bestimmungen, Edition for teachers, 
1904, pp. 98, 99. Cf. p. 140 for examination requirements 
for teachers of history. 

* Ibid., p. 103. Cf . p. 140 for examination requirements. 

• The Prussian Lehrplan of 1912 shows no essential 
! changes in these matters from that of 1902. 

163 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

patriotism permeates the textbooks dealing 
with the foregoing subjects. Much of the teach- 
ing is retrospective, a celebration of past vic- 
tories from which may be inferred a glorious 
future. In a school reader, for example, a tale 
is told of one of Frederick the Creates officers 
who with six men put to flight fifteen Austrian 
hussars.^ A burning tribute is paid in a his- 
torical text to the martial ardor and spirit of 
sacrifice that characterized the period of Prus- 
sia's regeneration.^ So, too, stirring accounts 

^ Belleniiann Deutschos Lesebuch, Erster Teil, pp. 241, 
242 et passim, for other stories of Prussian couraj^e. 

^Andra: Erzahlung:en aus der deutschen Qeschicbte. 
**Fired with enthusiiisin, the peoj»le rose, *with God for 
Kiiiu: and Fatherland/ Among the Prussians there was 
only one voice, one feeling, one anger and one love, to save 
the Fatherland and to free Germany. The Prussians wanted 
war; danger and death they wanted; peace they feared be- 
cause they could hope for no honorable peace from Na- 
poleon. War, War! sounded the ci-y from the Carpathians 
to the Baltic, from the Niemen to the Elbe. War! cried the 
nobleman and landed proprietor who had become impov- 
erished. War! the peasant who was driving his last horse 
to death . . . War! the citizen who was growing exhausted 
from quartering soldiers and paying taxes. War! the 
widow who was sending her only son to the front. War! 
the young girl who, with tears of pride and pain, was dis- 
missing her betrothed. Youths who were hardly able to 
bear arms, men with gray hair, officers who, on account of 
wounds and mutilations, had long ago been honorablv dis- 

164 



PATRIOTISM IN GEEMAN EDUCATION 

are given in poetry and prose of the triumphs 
of the Franco-German War/ ^'the beginning of 
the greatest and most splendid period that Ger- 
many has kno^vn in the course of her history." ^ 
The strength of the sentiment for the Father- 
land is illustrated in the poem, ^'Hans Euler," 
quoted in Scheel's ^^Lesebuch." Hans, whom a 
stranger is about to kill for the slaying of his 

charged, rich landed proprietors and officials, fathers of 
large families and managers of extensive businesses were 
miwilling to remain behind. Even yoimg women under all 
sorts of disguises rushed to arms; all wanted to drill, arm 
themselves and fight and die for the Fatherland . . . The 
most beautiful thing about all this holy zeal and happy 
confusion was that all differences of position, class and age 
were forgotten, . . . that the one gi^eat feeling for the 
Fatherland, its freedom and honor swallowed up all other 
feelings, caused all other considerations and relationships to 
be forgotten. ... So much did the sacred duty and common 
striving stir all heaiis that nothing low or base desecrated 
the splendid enthusiasm of those unforgettable days. It 
was as if the most insignificant felt that he must be a mir- 
ror of morality, modesty and right, if he would conquer the 
arrogance which he had so despised in the enemy." (Trans- 
lated by Margaret S. Scott.) 

^ Bellermann, etc. : Deutsches Lesebuch, pp. 32, 34, 35, 57, 
etc.; Scheel: Lesebuch, pp. 190, 360, 457, etc. 

2 Lange : Leitf aden zur Allgemeinen Geschichte, Vol. I, 
p. 67, "So begann der Krieg und mit ihm die grosste und 
glanzendste Zeit welche Deutschland ui seiner Geschichte 
eriebt hat.'' 

165 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

brother, says that he put him to death for 
threatening the Fatherland: ''You slew him 
then in a just cause," says the stranger. ''I 
crave your pardon." ^ In the same book ap- 
proximately one-third of the space devoted to 
the Sexta class concerns itself directly or indi- 
rectly with the teaching of patriotism. Thus 
the youth of Germany, like the youth of France, 
have been psychologically equipped for the ti- 
tanic struggle of today. They have learned the 
supreme duty of sacrificing the individual to 
the state in time of national peril.^ The teach- 
ing of patriotism in Germany is less formal, 
less didactic than in France, and so perhaps 
even more inspiring for the hour of victory. It 
has, however, certain weaknesses which will be 
pointed out later. 

Patriotism as inculcated in Germany is not 
only national; it is personal. Loyalty to the 
House of Hohenzollern and adherence to the 
monarchical principle are carefully taught 

1 Pp. 162, 163. 

2 Treue Liebe, bis zum Grabe 
Schwor' ich dir, rait Herz und Hand ^^ 

Was ich bin und was ich habe ^m 

Dank ich dir, mein Vaterland." 
— From Hoffman von Fallersleben, quoted in Bellermann, 
op. cit., p. 32. 

166 



I 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

along with, and as a part of, devotion to the 
Fatherland. As has been previously shown, 
the students in the normal schools of Prussia 
are to qualify themselves 'Ho arouse and to 
nourish in their pupils love for the Fatherland 
and for the ruling dynasty." ^ For the higher 
schools of Prussia we find prescribed in the 
Plans of Instruction: ''Where the history of 
the recent centuries offers opportunity to pre- 
sent the social-political measures of the Eu- 
ropean civilized nations [Kultiirstaaten], the 
transition is natural to a presentation of the 
services of our ruling house in promoting the 
welfare of the people down to today." ^ The 
textbooks carry out these instructions with 
characteristic fervor and enthusiasm. Little 
tots, just being taught to read, learn of the 
delightful paternal attitude of the Kaiser to- 
ward his people: "The Kaiser has many sol- 
diers. He loves us all. We love him, too."^ 

^ Schcippa : Die Bestimmungen. Edition for teachers, 
1904, p. 99. 

2 OfiBcial Lehi-plane f iir Hohere Anstalten Preussens, p. 
48; Kratz, pp. 59, 60. 

^ Henck und Traudt : Frohliches Lernen, p. 61. The de- 
sire to inculcate a vei^y personal loyalty to the Kaiser is 
illustrated in the following pretty little poem (^^Erika,'' 
p. 63) quoted on the next page: 

167 . 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

His great ancestors are lauded to the skies. A 
poet represents the inhabitants of South Ger- 
many as saluting the Emperor Frederick, 
^^Hohenzollem, Son, Sufferer, Hero, Sage! 
They feel for him, they glory in him — now their 
Kaiser." ^ A tribute to the Emperor William I 
reads, '^But whatever the night-covered wings 
of the future may bring, can they ever bring 
forgetfulness and the end of our fidelity? The 
rustling wind in echo whispers *Here and be- 
yond, we were, we remain thine. Lord and Em- 
peror."- Frederick the Great is represented 

Der Kaiser ist cin lieber Mann 

Und wohnet in Berlin ; 
Und war' es nicht so wait von hier, 

So ging ich heut' noch bin; 

Und was ich bei dem Kaiser wollt'f 

Ich iriib' ihm meine Hand 
Und bracht' die schonsten Bliimchen ihm, 
Die ich im Garten fand. 



Und sairte dann, "Aus treuer Lieb' 
Bring ich die Bliimchen Dir;" 

Und dann lief ich geschwinde fort, 
Und ware wieder hier. 



II 



^ Scheel : Lesebiich, p. 186. 
2 Ibid., p. 362. See also Lange : Leitfaden, Vol. I, p. 68; 
Andra: Erzahlungen. 

168 



I 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

as ^Hlie most powerful example of unqualified 
and complete devotion to the State." ^ The au- 
thor of a historical textbook says that the only 
fault attributable to that monarch of blameless 
life (who robbed Maria Theresa of Silesia, in- 
trigued successfully to secure a share of un- 
happy Poland, and treated his own wife with 
cold neglect) was that he preferred French to 
German culture.^ In general the Hohenzollerns 
are a race of heroes ; ^ their house is one of the 
two firm foundations of the German Empire, 
the other being a well-trained army.^ It seems 
as if, in times of danger. Divine Providence had 
always sent a HohenzoUern to rescue Germany 
from trouble and distress.^ Only grateful de- 
votion to Prince and Fatherland can main- 
tain the State upon the heights she has 
attained.^ 

^Neubauer: V Teil, p. 63, Frederick stood "on a soli- 
tary height above his people, the war-lord and statesman, 
the philosopher and historian, the most powerful example 
of unqualified and complete devotion to the state." 

2 Lauer : Weltgeschichte, pp. 173-4. 

' Lange, p. 68. 

^ Lauer, p. 242. 

^ Andra, p. 157. 

® Fischer-Seistbeck : Erdkunde, III Teil, p. 92; see espe- 
cially the Ministerial regulations on this subject in Schoppa : 
Bestimmungen, pp. 40, 42. 

169 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Loyalty to the imperial djTiasty has been fur- 
ther upheld by praise of the monarchical prin- ' 
ciple, in the official directions to the Prussian 
schools ^ and accordingly in the textbooks. 
Certain regulations for the lower schools of 
Prussia, for example, require the use of such 
a textbook as will show 'Miow the monarchical 
form of the state is best adapted to protect the 
family, freedom, justice and the welfare of the 
individual. ' ' ^ The author of a historical reader 
says that the nineteenth-century movement to- 
ward individual freedom has been offset by the 
necessity of a strong state's power, and espe- 
cially by the right of monarchy.^ The Em- 
peror William I's manner of ruling, and his 
genuinely royal character, according to another 
writer, ^^strengthened the feeling for monarchy, 
in which lies security for the well-being of our 
nation. ' ' * 

Furthermore, since the grim shape of Social- 
ism ever casts a shadow athwart the throne of 
the modem monarch, its doctrines have been 

1 Schoppa : op. cit., pp. 37-38. 

2 Ibid., p. 37. 

^Neubaiier: Lehrbuch, V Teil, p. 122. 

* Schenk-Koch : Geschichte, VI. Teil, Unter Secunda, 3d 
Edition, 1909, p. 124. See also Lauer: Weltgeschichte, p. 
176. 

170 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

combated tlirougli criticism/ prompted by of- 
ficial mandate. ^^The instruction in economic 
and social questions, in their relation to the 
present time" — according to the Prussian 
program of 1902 for higher schools, '^demands 
peculiarly reliable tact and great circumspec- 
tion in the choice and treatment of matter to 
be dealt with. The instruction, given in an 
ethical and historical spirit, must discuss on 
the one hand the justness of many of the social 
demands of the present day, and on the other 
hand expose the ruinous character of all violent 
attempts to alter social conditions. The more 
objectively the historical development of the 
mutual relations of the different classes of so- 
ciety, and in particular the position of the 
working classes, is treated, and the continual 
progress toward a better state of things is 
shown, without any display of prejudice, the 
sooner will it be possible, seeing the healthful 
common sense of our younger generation, to en- 
able them to form a clear and calm judgment 
of the dangers attending the unjustifiable so- 
cial ambitions of the present day. 

*^ . . Wherever the history of the last cen- 
turies offers an opportunity of reviewing the so- 

^ For example Neubauer: op. cit., V Teil, p. 123. 

171 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

cial reforms effected by the civilized states of 
Europe, the transition to a representation of 
the services of our ruling House in furthering 
the national well-being do^vn to the most recent 
times is a natural one/'^ A French scholar, 
writing several years before the outbreak of 
the present war, does not appear to exceed the 
limits of truth when he says that the professor 
of history in the Gymnasium is the qualified 
representative of the official struggle against 
the social democracy.^ 

In Germany, then, education has been used 
to fortify monarchical rule, whereas in France 
it has serv^ed to weaken the desire for one-man 
power. The German school has placed the 
Kaiser on a pedestal; it has crowned his brow 
with the laurel wreath of loyalty and love. The 
two countries are at one, however, in having 
strengthened the stability of their respective 
forms of government by means of the school 
system. On the other hand, a comparison of 
programs and textbooks shows that the schools 
of the Empire have paid less deference to the 

^ Quoted in Great Britain, Special Reports on Educa- 
tional Subjects, Vol. IX, p. 200; also Kratz, p. 59. 

2 Tourneur, in Seignobos, Langlois, etc.: L'Enseigne- 
ment de FHistoire, p. 88. 

172 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

ideal of individual liberty than have those of the 
Republic. Furthermore, the German preach- 
ments against socialistic and communistic ideas 
bear more of an official stamp than do those of 
France. As far as education is a factor in na- 
tional life, therefore, Germany has probably se- 
cured greater docility in her people, though not 
necessarih^ greater loyalty, than has France. 
/ ^* Perhaps the most prominent feature in the 
psychology of the German nation," says a re- 
cent English writer, ^^is its exaggerated race- 
consciousness.'' ^ A study of German text- 
books does much to sustain this accusation ; for 
the teaching of patriotism melts almost imper- 
ceptibly into the inculcation of national self- 
glorification and national egoism. Thus Lauer, 
in his ' ^ Weltgeschichte, " says that Germans 
have never been defeated except when fighting 
against other Germans.^ Sometimes textbook 
writers transmit to the youth of the Empire a 
rather excessive pride in German culture and 
German civilization.^ For example, an English 

^ Randall : Pan-Germanic Education, Contemporary Re- 
view, November, 1915, p. 589. 

2 P. 264. 

^ Brust und Verdrow : Geographic, Teil I, p. 36 ; Fischer- 
Seistbeck: Erdkimde, III Teil, p. 88; Daniel: Lehrbuch 
der Geographie, pp. 262, 355; etc. 

173 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

student of education asserts that a very popular 
German school geography ^ ' contains the state- 
ment that the Germans are the civilized people 
of Europe and that all real civilization else- 
where ... is due to German blood. ' ' ^ Even 
though the word '^German" as here used may 
mean ^^ Teutonic," the statement is complacent 
enough. 

But I find it even more significant that in 
such school histories as I have examined I 
have never met with a real criticism of Ger- 
many's past conduct. Poland, for example, was 
responsible for her own destruction by reason 
of her internal weakness ; Prussia shared in her 
partition to prevent all the spoil from falling 
into the hands of Russia, to bolt the door of 
Prussia against the Russian giant, and to con- 
vert territory, formerly German, but doomed 
by the Poles to well-nigh certain depopulation 
and destruction, into a land blossoming with 
German civilization.^ The war between Aus- 
tria and Prussia, whose advent was, in the view 
of the foreign looker-on, promoted by the latter, 
is attributed by one writer to the desire of Aus- 

^Brereton: Who Is Responsible? p. 63. 
2Neubauer: Lehrbuch, V Teil, pp. 63, 64; Schenk-Koch, 
VI Teil, p. 19. 

174 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

tria to recover Silesia/ by another to her un- 
willingness to endure any augmentation of 
Prussia's territory on the North Sea.^ 

The Franco-German struggle is said to have 
come, not, in part at least, from Pinissia's pur- 
pose to unify and dominate Germany, but 
wholly from Louis Napoleon's en\y, his Machia- 
vellian plans which had long been maturing.^ 

For the student of the psychology of Ger- 
many the significant fact is, not that her chil- 
dren are taught that other nations have to bear 
their burden of guilt and responsibility for her 
wars, but that no part of it is attributed to the 
Fatherland; its shield is spotless. To those 
who have come under the influence of such 
teaching the inference is natural that all wars 
in which Germany has become embroiled, what- 
ever be the events leading to them, have been, 
on the part of that country, wars of defense; 

^ Lange: Leitfaden, Vol. I, p. 65. 

-Lauer: Weltgeschichte, p. 221. 

3 Daniel: Lehrbuch, p. 356; Lauer, p. 229; Andra: Er- 
zahlungen, p. 170 ff.; Schenk-Koch, VI Teil, p. 108: "und 
am 18 Januar, 1871, fand im Spiegelsaale zu Versailles die 
offentliche Verkundigung des Deutschen Kaiserreichs statt 
noch mitten in dem Kriege, den der Erbfeind geradc zu dera 
Zwecke entfacbt hatte um die Einigung Deutschlands zu 
verhindern." 

175 






PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

the Fatherland has never instigated war in the 
past ; it cannot now or ever ! The present con- 
flict must be a conspiracy against the beloved 
Fatherland! There is something naive about 
this exaggerated race-consciousness, something f 
dangerous, too, as well to Germany as to other 
states, as the obsession of a religious zealot is 
dangerous to himself and those about him. It 
leads to suspicion of other countries, to an un- 
willingness and even an inability to recognize 
their rights and their legitimate ambitions. 

It is natural that in a country whose recent 
history has been as brilliant as has that of Ger- 
many, whose wealth and population have been 
increasing so rapidly, whose territory has been 
so restricted, that there should have developed 
a certain demand for expansion. Such a de- 
mand in any country, however, does not neces- 
sarily represent the attitude of the nation as a 
whole. So Germans have pointed out that the 
books of Bernhardi have met with but little 
sympathy in the Empire, that they have been 
taken far more seriously abroad than at home. 

It would indeed be unfair to maintain that 
Bernhardi represents the attitude of all his 
fellow-countrymen. But that the idea of a 
Weltpolitik was not confined to a small coterie 

176 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

of chauvinists in Germany, is shown by the fact 
that its influence penetrated the school. The 
pedagogical significance of suggestion in the 
teaching of patriotism is perhaps nowhere 
greater than in the inculcation of Pan-German- 
ism. The Pan-German vision looks forward to 
the acquisition by Germany of the major por- 
tion, if not of the whole, of the territory once 
comprised in the Holy Roman Empire. So 
far as I have found, the German textbook 
writer is by no means inclined to accept Vol- 
taire's dictum that this flimsy political struc- 
ture was neither holy nor Roman nor an em- 
pire. To him it is the ancestor of the Hohen- 
zollern Empire of today ; he usually refers to it 
as Das deutsche Reich, ^ and takes it very 
seriously. *' Politically," says the author of a 
school geography, ^Hhe Empire furnishes since 
' the Treaty of Verdun (843), for more than a 
I thousand years, therefore, a unity, even if at 
* times only loosely held together by the German 
' Kaiser-idea."^ It is also pointed out by an- 

^ Andrii : Erziihlungen, passim; Neubaiier: Lehrbiich, V 
j Teil; Fischer-Seistbeck : Erdkimde, V Teil; Daniel: Lehr- 
buch; etc. 

-^Fischer-Seistbeck, p. 91 ff. ; Schenk-Koch, V. In tables 

■ i dates to be learned: *^9(32-1806, Das Ileilige runiische 

I Reich der deutscher Nation," the next entry in the same col- 

177 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

other geograplier that Switzerland, Liechten- 
stein, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg 
are either wholly or in great part inhabited 
by Germans, though now detached almost en- 
tirely from the old German Empire to which 
they once belonged.^ The same author also 
says that the German land embraces in a geo- 
graphical and ethnographical sense a territory 
of 850,000 square kilometers. **Its chief con- 
stituent part is the German Empire." ^ The 
Pan-German tlieory furnishes of course an ad- 
ditional justification for the sequestration of 
Alsace-Lorraine in 1871.^ Certain Germans 
will see in it, also, a justification for the '* re- 
conquest" of Belgium. Possibly they would rea- 
son that the great crime was not that the im- 

umn, "Deutsche Greschichte," being: "Bur^nd kommt zum 
Deutschen Reiche," p. 115. The corresponding entry in 
the same author's Teil VI, p. 130, is: "Burgund fallt an 
Deutschland/' 

1 Daniel : Lehrbuch, pp. 424, 425. 

2 Daniel, op. cit., p. 315. See also pp. 356, 424-425, 428. 
In Fischer-Seistbeck : Erdkunde, Y Teil, p. 76, occurs the 
following statement : "In the sectarian tunuoils of the 
16th century and in the war-currents of the 17th and 18th 
centuries, Germany completely lost her sea power; the 
heaviest loss, however, is coupled with the separation of 
Holland from the Empire in 1648." 

3 Daniel, op. cit., p. 271 ; Lange : Leitf aden, Vol. I, p. 68. 

178 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

perial forces marched across German (i. e., 
Belgian ancient imperial) soil, but that Ger- 
mans (i. e., Belgians) rose to attack their 
brothers. Certainly the textbooks to which 
reference has just been made have tended to 
implant in youthful minds the idea that terri- 
tory once German should again be German. 
^^We have waged no wars of conquest," wrote 
a German girl to an American friend in Sep- 
tember, 1915. '^If we had done so, Holstein, Al- 
sace-Lorraine, Belgium, the Russian provinces 
on the Baltic would not have been torn from 
the Empire." The Pan-German suggestion is 
Germaniu irredenta} 

V The value and need of the founding and main- 
tenance of German colonies are frequently em- 
phasized in the schools, and with their corollary, 
German power upon the seas, are made an ob- 
ject of inspiration to the young. Daniel's ge- 
ography in its hundreds of thousands of copies, 
after sketching the history of colonization, con- 
tinues: ^^All this proves what immeasurable 
worth colonies had and still have for every land. 
Universal history shows that the prosperity, 

^ I have heard it stated — by a German — that many Ger- 
mans today consider the retention of Belgium justified by 
the principle of nationality. 

179 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

yea even the existence of so many states is 
dependent only on colonization; the Greeks in 
antiquity and the English in modern times are 
the best examples of this. 

^^If now the question is asked what peoples 
have contributed most to the colonization of 
the globe, the answer is, in antiquity the Greeks, 
in medieval and modern times transitionally 
the Romanic, but mainly the Germanic peo- 
ples." ^ This final statement, that Germans are 
the historic colonizers, the Fischer-Seistbeck 
geography for higher schools expands into an 
impassioned argument, which with others, eco- 
nomic and geographical, would justify Ger- 
many's claim to a larger place in the dominion 
of the seas.2 icj^ ^1^^ great discoveries at the 
opening of the modern epocli," to quote but a 
small part of what the authors have to say, 
^Hlie Welfs of Augsburg took a notable part; 
in three expeditions they conquered Venezuela, 
which properly should be called Welfland, but 
lacking support from the Empire they were un- 
able to preserve the colony. The scholar of 
Metz, Waldseemiiller, designed the first maps 
of America and gave the land its name; and 

1 Daniel : Leitfaden, 264th Edition, p. 52. 

2 Fischer-Seistbeck : Erdkunde, pp. 74-76. 

180 



I 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

Mercator's system of projections became the 
model for the constraction of sea-charts. '^ In 
none of the books that I have examined have I 
found military or naval conquest directly advo- 
cated, but there is certainly the tendency to sug- 
gest the right of Germany to an increase of ter- 
ritory and power in Europe and elsewhere, in 
a word to a *^ place in the sun." And how is 
this ^' place in the sun" to be obtained unless 
by war on land and sea? Such is the natural 
inference to be dra^vn from the textbook teach- 
ings in regard to German expansion. 

Nevertheless the use of education to 
strengthen the idea of national expansion has 
not been confined to Germany. For revanche 
has been taught in France ; her schools cannot 
be wholly freed from the accusation of ha^ving 
inculcated chauvinism. On the other hand, Ger- 
man patriotic instruction has not been modified 
to the same extent as that of France by the in- 
fluence of cosmopolitanism. I have found noth- 
ing approaching pacificism in the German text- 
books. Indeed, teachings of this sort are hardly 
compatible with that tendency to foster a mili- 
tant and exaggerated race-consciousness which 
has been shown to be characteristic of the Ger- 
man system of education. France, on the other 

181 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

hand, has, through the school, distinctly com- 
bated the development of national egoism, be- 
lieving it to be dangerous to the welfare of the 
state. 

It is of the essence of a highly developed na- 
tionalism that it should tend to ignore or to dis- 
parage foreign peoples. It is hardly surpris- 
ing, therefore, to learn from the Prussian pro- 
gram of 1902 for higher schools that the ** his- 
tory of nations outside of Germany is to be 
considered only as it is of importance for Ger- 
man history."^ But the inaccuracy which 
sometimes accompanies the interpretation of 
this rule is a bit startling to those Americans 
who have been accustomed to think of Germany 
as the Holy Land of scientific scholarship. 
A textbook prepared for the wnter-secunda 
classes begins the story of our Civil War thus : 
''The North American Civil War. Between 
the North and the South of the Union the sharp- 
est contrasts had always existed ; in the former, 
a population preponderatingly Germanic and 
Protestant; in the latter, Romanic and Cath- 
olic.'' 2 In connecting the history of the United 
States with the history of Germany — in accord- 

^ Official Lehrplane, etc., p. 215 and passim. 

2 Schenk-Koch : Lehrbuch der Greschichte, VI Teil, p. 94. 

182 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

ance with the official regulations of 1902 — the 
same writer says, ^'The relation of the Union 
to Gennany has increased in wannth since the 
twelve millions of Germans, citizens of the 
United States, have become more deeply con- 
scious of their Germanism {Deutschtum) and 
of their connection in spirit with the United 
Fatherland {Deutscli-Amerihanischer 'National 
Bimd).^^^ It is but natural that Germany 
should give less attention to the history of our 
country than we to hers. But it is strange that 
a state which has organized and developed at 
great expense a secret service system for gath- 
ering information in regard to foreign coun- 
tries should allow errors so obvious to pene- 
trate the minds of her future citizens. Such 
teachings do not make it easier for Germans to 
understand the temper of the American people 
in times of strained relations. 

Among the many accusations lodged at Ger- 
many's door since the opening of the great war, 
one is that hatred of Great Britain has been in- 
culcated in the schools of the Empire.^ ^'This 

^ Schenk-Koch : Lebrbuch der Geschicbte, VI Teil, p. 94. 

2 London Times, Weekly Edition, July 23, 1915. As far 
as that goes I bave understood from a reliable (and "pro- 
ally") source that in at least one military school in Eng- 
land the boys were taught to hate Germany. 

183 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

process has been going on," says Dr. Thomas 
F. A. Smith, ^^in lectures, reading-books, charts 
on the wall and all the other apparatus of 
school life.'' ^ Dr. Smith's contention, however, 
is weakened by his failure to support it with 
adequate evidence, as well as by his clear and 
very violent prejudice against the Vaterland. 
My investigations do not warrant drawing so 
severe an indictment. Official Plans of Instruc- 
tion and textbooks have furnished the material 
for my study; and it would require an acquaint- 
ance more extensive than I possess with the 
work, method and personality of the teacher 
in the German schoolroom to determine the ex- 
tent to which hostility to England has been en- 
couraged there. Possibly the schoolmaster has 
been more inimical than the textbook. It is 
safe to say that the sentiment of the textbook 
inculcating love on the one hand and hostility on 
the other loses nothing of force under the direc- 
tion of the enthusiasm enjoined by the '^Lehr- 
plan. ' ' 

I do find in the textbooks, as occasion of- 
fers, however, disparagement of Great Britain. 
Her policy in the nineteenth century has been 
shrewd but inconsiderate {rucksichtslos), ac- 

^ The Soul of Germany, p. 31. 

184 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

cording to one ; ^ according to another, she has 
been forced, during the same period, with natu- 
ral repugnance to admit to rivalry in world 
commerce, first France, then the United States 
and finally '^us Germans, long so lightly es- 
teemed."- The same author holds that the 
pride of the Briton in his ' ' old England" is par- 
donable so long as this national feeling does not 
degenerate into presumption and immoderate 
bearing {iinmasslicJies Wesen) toward for- 
eigners.^ As a consequence of the Franco-Ger- 
man and Russo-Turkish wars in the last third 
of the nineteenth century, ^^ England derived 
again, as she has for two centuries, great ad- 
vantages from the wars of the continental pow- 
ers."** After specifying these advantages the 
author proceeds : ^*In view of the commanding 
position of England as a world-power, and of 
our unimportant colonial possessions, the lam- 
entable relation which has arisen between 
England and Germany is almost incomprehen- 
sible. " ^ ^'The increase of the German navy," 

^Neubauer: Lehrbuch der Geschichte, V Teil, p. 138. 

^ Daniel : Lehrbuch der Geographie, p. 428. 

* Ibid., p. 275. 

^ Schenk-Koch: Lehrbuch, VI Teil, p. 119. 

^ Ibid. 

185 



PATEIOTS IN THE I^IAKING 

says the same author, * ' constant and with com- 
plete self-consciousness of its purpose, is fol- 
lowed by the English with unfriendly eyes, and 
there are, despite all mutual efforts for a better 
understanding, very influential circles in Eng- 
land which hold that an enfeeblement of Ger- 
many {eine Schwdchung Deutschlands) is neces- 
sary to secure Great Britain^s position as a 
world-power/' ^ Of England's conquests in In- 
dia this is said: *'The English domain of in- 
fluence (Einflussgebict) was uninterruptedly 
extended in further India, for the most part at- 
tended by the exercise of extreme craftiness 
and cruelty."^ Such occasional criticisms by 
schoolbook writers would naturally prompt in 
the pupils memorizing them distrust and dis- 
like of England, but they do not make certain 
a widespread and systematic purpose to in- 
spire ^^ hatred of England."^ Possibly, then, 

1 Schenk-Koch : Lebrbuch, VI Teil, p. 120. 

2 Ibid., p. 92. 

^ It cannot too often be insisted that Treitsehke is not 
necessarily typical of the German attitude toward England. 
After all, he taught in a university where instruction is 
more highly individual than in a school. On the other 
hand, since the natural tendency of education is to yield 
but slowly to new social forces, antagonism toward Eng- 
land, a comparatively recent sentiment, in its more virulent 

186 



PATRIOTISM IX GERMAN EDUCATION 

animosity toward Great Britain, which undoubt- 
edly existed in Germajiy before the war, had 
not thoroughly permeated the schools. The 
question is one that deserves more thorough 
study than it has yet received. 

The ancient enmity between Germany and 
France, on the other hand, stands Out more 
sharply in the textbooks. In the school read- 
ers many a poem in praise of Germany's past 
triumphs preserves the vindictive memory of 
the age-long hostility between the two countries. 
In the soul-trying times of 1813 x\mdt roused 
the heart and purpose of Germany thus: 
•'We'll redden the iron with blood, with hang- 
man's blood, with Frenchman's blood ; Oh, sweet 
day of revenge ! That sounds good to all Ger- 
mans ; that is the great cause ! ' ' Repeatedly re- 
printed,^ these words have been frequently re- 
cited by the children and the children's chil- 
dren of the patriots of Amdt's day. The 
French are called voracious ravens ; ^ in the 
War of 1870 they were full of envj and trick- 
form, may very well have affected a lar;^e proportion of the 
population of Germany without great contemporaneous 
effect on the schools. 

^ Scheel, p. 367. 

2 Ibid., p. 368. 

187 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

eiy ; ^ they had stolen Alsace and Metz and Lor- 
raine from Germany by sneaking cunning.- A 
true German may not endure any Frenchman, 
though he is glad to drink his wines.^ A his- 
torian rejoices in the defeat in the Seven Years' 
War of the ''hated French" {verhassten Fran- 
zosen).^ In general, France is the hereditary 
foe (Erbfeind) ; ^ and Mr. Randall even goes so 
far as to assert — with some exaggeration — that 
*' enmity against France might almost be said 
to form a subject of school curricula."*^ 
^ Thus Germany, like France, has equipped her 
people with a psychology of preparedness. 
Like France, she has held before her sons the 
ideal of military courage and has taught them 
to be ready to die like heroes for the Father- 
land. She has inculcated this spirit of patriot- 
ism largely through the study of history, of ge- 
ography and of the German language and litera- 
ture; while France, thougli not neglecting en- 
tirely the patriotic possibilities of these sub- 

^ Sclieel : Lesebuch, p. 191. 
2 Ibid., p. 193. 

' Quoted in Daniel : Geo^japhie, p. 261. 
^Andra: Erzah lung-en, p. 111. 
^ Scheel, p. 369, et passim. 

* Pan-Germanic Education, Contemporary Review, Nov. 
1915, p. 595. 

188 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

jects, lias placed more reliance on books of 
moral and civic instruction. Like France, Ger- 
many has brought her school system to the sup- 
port of the existing government, but in so doing 
she has fostered a devoted loyalty to monarchy, 
a form of control to which French education 
has been unalterably opposed. The develop- 
ment of this sentiment of devotion to the ruling 
house is one of the most conspicuous factors in 
the patriotic instruction of young Germans. 

The two countries are alike also in having 
planted in the minds of their future citizens 
thoughts of the recovery of ancestral terri- 
tories. French textbook writers have taught 
definitely that the state ought not resign itself 
permanently to the losses of the Franco-Ger- 
man War, though this doctrine was preached 
more fervently in the first half of the Third 
Republic's history than in the second. German 
writers have suggested conquest by reminding 
their youthful public of the outlying lands 
which, according to their interpretation of his- 
toric and national claims, should form part of 
the Empire. In both countries, too, textbook 
writers have been allowed by their govern- 
ments to sow the seeds of national antago- 
nisms and national suspicions. 

189 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

There are, however, two respects in which the 
patriotic education of the French has been of 
a character less dangerous to world-peace than 
that of Germany. In the first place, the of- 
ficial programs and consequently the text- 
book writers of France have laid emphasis on 
the defensive aim of the country's military 
preparations. The supreme necessity of re- 
pelling invasion has been constantly reiterated, 
while there has been a disposition to decry 
chauvinism. In Germany, on the other hand, 
there seems to have been a tendency to glorify 
the military spirit for its own sake. This would 
naturally lead to chauvinism. If this tendency 
in education has been curbed by contrary influ- 
ences they have not come within my ken. 

Secondly, as has been indicated, a greater de- 
gree of national egoism is to be found in the 
textbooks of the Empire than in those of the 
Republic. In France such national egoism as 
existed in the days of fat prosperity that pre- 
ceded the Franco-German War was given such 
a shock by the disasters of the tragic year that 
it could not possibly recover in forty or fifty 
years. Furthermore the devotion of the French 
to such principles as those of liberty, equality 
and fraternity would, in any case, prevent her 

190 



PATRIOTISM IN GERMAN EDUCATION 

from being completely dominated by a narrow 
nationalism. 

The patriotic training of early years, then, 
helps to explain that curious war psychology of 
the GeiTQans which foreigners find so hard to 
understand and which hinders the Germans 
themselves from comprehending the viewpoint 
of their foes. Of the extent to which his at- 
titude has been deteraiined by instruction the 
individual German is naturally unconscious. 
Many a man, in every civilized country, believes 
certain views absorbed in the impressionable 
years of boyhood to be the ripe and reasoned 
conclusions of maturity. The German, there- 
fore, often bases his arguments in regard to the 
war on premises taught him in school, premises 
unconsciously assumed to be axiomatic but 
which his opponents will not admit. Thus he 
assumes that the interests of the Fatherland 
are paramount, that they should precede every 
other consideration. Who or what, therefore, 
will gainsay his right to promote them? If 
devotion to the state and to its ruler impels 
him to acts of the highest heroism, it justifies 
also, in his mind, a policy of rigorous severity 
toward those who would injure his country's 
cause. That the Fatherland can do no wrong, 

191 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

that it has a civilizing mission toward the rest 
of Europe, are natural deductions from the pre- 
cepts of the textbooks. If the European may- 
bear the torch of civilization by brute f orc^ into 
benighted Africa, why should not the liglit of 
Kullur accompany the armies of victorious Ger- 
many? Furthermore, wherever there is a hint 
of Pan-Germanism, it leads to the natural infer- 
ence that the Fatherland has been ill-treated in 
the past, that it has been deprived of portions 
of an inheritance which may rightfully be re- 
gained by concjuest. Whatever may be the feel- 
ing of foreigners with regard to the justice of 
his cause, it would indeed be difficult for the 
German of today, reared in this atmosphere of 
patriotism and loyalty, to escape a sincere con- 
viction that he is fighting for the right. From 
infancy he has been dominated by a narrow na- 
tionalism. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

In the early years of the present century the 
temper of the United States was becoming 
unwontedly introspective. Secure in the com- 
fortable assurance that our relations with for- 
eign countries were on the whole most amicable, 
and confident that the government was handling 
with requisite skill such difficulties as arose, 
we began to concentrate on the solution of in- 
' ternal problems and to engage vigorously in a 
' moral housecleaning. Then came the great 
I war ; and we turned from our study of corrupt 
politics, malefactors of great wealth and the 
orrows of white slavery, to a dazed contempla- 
tion of European battlefields and the wreckage 
of Belgium. After the first pharisaical wave 
J of thankfulness that the United States was not 
( as other nations had passed, came the question 
I whether after all our own country might not 
some day be involved in a conflict with the 
' liighly trained and scientifically armed troops 
1 193 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of a foreign power, and whether, in such case, 
the simple expedient of locking arms and rudely 
pushing them into the sea would prove com- 
pletely effective. Hence the demand for pre- 
paredness. 

In opposition to this demand for increased 
armament arose the cry ** Preparedness means 
war." The fear developed that a militaristic, 
swashbuckling spirit would fasten itself upon 
the United States, tliat the country would be- 
come overbearing and ambitious for conquest. 
Thus preparedness, it was argued, would arouse 
the hostility of other nations and would, in the 
end, bring on the very conflict against which it 
had originally sought to guard. 

In spite of such fears the sentiment for pre- 
paredness has grown steadily. The Europeim 
conflict has clearly revealed the fact that the 
desire to avoid war is not of itself an adequate 
guaranty of the impossibility of war. Society 
has not yet reached that stage of altruism which 
pennits the lion and the lamb to lie down to- 
gether or which secures the safety of that na- 
tion which denudes itself of armament. Fur- 
thermore, the United States has recently 
emerged from that condition of happy isolation 
which was in times past perhaps her greatest 

194 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

safeguard. Our country has acquired new pos- 
sessions which it is at present in honor bound to 
protect, even though it may look forward to 
conferring upon them ultimately the rights of 
self-government. The Monroe Doctrine places 
upon us vast responsibilities for the protection 
and welfare of the western hemisphere; in- 
volved in its defense are innumerable possi- 
bilities of conflict. Furthermore, Mexico is a 
constant menace in spite of the peaceful policy 
of our President. Nor can we be absolutely 
sure of the continued friendship of all the great 
powers. The rest of the world can no longer 
reckon without the United States; the United 
States cannot reckon without the rest of the 
wo rid. ^ 

For any such war as that which now over- 
whelms Europe our country is of course entirely 
unready. It is not even prepared for a con- 
flict of much smaller proportions. Not only is 
our army small, but we lack that trained re- 
ser\^e which is proving so effective in Europe. 
'^At the beginning of eveiy single one of our 
wars," says Huidekoper, ^^the want of trained 
reserves has caused the quality and eflBciency 

^ See Bacon: National Defense (Handbook), for these 
and other arguments. 

195 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of our regular Army to be adulterated by in- 
creasing its number of raw recruits. ' ' ^ ^ * Our 
history is replete with the achievements of the 
volunteer soldier after he has received the 
training necessary for war, but it contains no 
instance when raw levies have been successfully 
employed in general military operations. ' ' ^ 
The untrained patriot, hastily transferred from 
civilian clothes to uniform, makes but a sad 
showing when face to face with the experienced 
soldier of a hostile nation. The reservist, on 
the other hand, is apt to prove a good fighter. 
Considerations such as these have resulted in 
vigorous efforts to arouse the countiy to a 
reaUzation of the need for more adequate na- 
tional defense. A host of books and articles 
have appeared on the subject, some of them 
worthless or mediocre, others more worthy of 
thouglitful consideration. Professor R. M. 
Johnston has taken a broad, philosophical 
view of the question of annaments in his 
**Arms and the Race." Theodore Roosevelt 
has voiced his convictions in his two books, 
^^ America and the World War" and *'Fear 
God and Take Your Own Part." The actual 

^ Military Policy of the United States, p. 535. 
2 Ibid., p. 531. 

196 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

status of our defenses is discussed in Francis 
V. Greene's ^'Present Military Situation in the 
United States'' and Carter's ''American 
Army." The weaknesses of our past military 
policy have been pointed out in General Leon- 
ard Wood's little work, entitled ''Our Military 
History ; Its Facts and Fallacies. " But perhaps 
the most significant of all books dealing with 
the subject of preparedness is Frederic L. 
Huidekoper's "Military Unpreparedness of the 
United States," which, though "put together 
in an incredibly short time — is comprehensive 
and well-organized, and carries its message 
with extraordinary force." ^ From books such 
as these the American public has been learning 
something of the reasons underlying the de- 
mand for preparedness. 

Through organizations and demonstrations 
the sentiment has been further crystallized and 
strengthened. The program of the National 

^ American Political Science Review, Vol. IX, p. 778, No- 
vember, 1915. For further references see Bacon, C. : Se- 
lected Articles on National Defense. (Debaters' Handbook 
Series), Vols. I and II. The H. W. Wilson Co., 1915- 
1916. A new book likely to prove valuable, to which I 
have not had access, is being* published by Putnam; it is 
by Lucien Howe, M.D., and is entitled "Universal Military 
Education." 

197 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

Security League, for example, calls for less 
wastefulness in the matter of military expenses, 
a stronger and more effective army and navy, 
organization of the National Guard under the 
War Department, and *'the creation of an or- 
ganized reserv^e for each branch of our military 
service. " ^ A number of other societies, with 
somewhat similar aims, have devoted their in- 
fluence to the movement.^ The demand for 
adequate national defense has been more dra- 
matically voiced, however, in the great parades 
of citizens in New York and other great cities 
of the country. In New York more than 140,000 
persons marched for long hours in token of 
their sympathy for preparedness.^ Boston's 
parade brought out some 40,000 marchers,* 
while Chicago, the chief city of the supposedly 
lukewarm Middle West, marshaled a host of 
more than 130,000.^ By means such as these 
the demand for preparedness has fastened it- 

^ Bacon : National Defense, p. 15. 

2 Among these are the American Defense Lea^e, the 
American Defense Society, the American Legion, and the 
Navy League of the United States. 

^ The figures given in a report of Grand Marshal Charles 
H. SherriU are 140,139. 

* The Outlook, June 7, 1916, p. 292. 

^ Chicago Herald, June 4, 1916. 

198 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

self more and more securely upon the thought 
of the nation.^ 

Finally the two great political parties have 
declared themselves squarely in favor of a 
stronger national defense. The Republican 
platform asserts that ^^We must have a suf- 
ficient and effective regular army and a pro- 
vision for ample reserves, already drilled and 
disciplined, who can be called at once to the 
colors when the hour of danger comes. 

'^ We must have a na^^ so strong and so well 
proportioned and equipped, so thoroughly 
ready and prepared, that no enemy can gain 
command of the sea and effect a landing in 
force on either our Western or our Eastern 
coast- To secure these results we must have 
a coherent and continuous policy of national de- 
fense, which even in these perilous days the 
Democratic party has utterly failed to develop, 
but which we promise to give to the countiy." 

The Democratic party, for its part, states: 
**We . . . favor the maintenance of an army 

^ At the San Francisco preparedness parade occurred a 
disastrous outra;^. A bomb, placed in a suitcase and set 
off by a time fuse, exploded, killini^ a number of persons 
and injuring many more. It was impossible to trace the 
author of the deed. 

199 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

fully adequate to the requirements of order, 
of safety, and of the protection of the na- 
tion's rights, the fullest development of mod- 
ern methods of seacoast defense and the main- 
tenance of an adequate reserve of citizens 
trained to arms and prepared to safeguard the 
people and territory of the United States 
against any danger of hostile action which may 
unexpectedly arise; of a navy worthy to sup- 
port the great naval traditions of the United 
States, and fully equal to the international tasks 
which the United States hopes and expects to 
take part in performing. The plans and enact- 
ments of the present Congress afford substan- 
tial proof of our purpose in this exigent 
matter. ' ' 

It hardly seems to be a question, then, as to 
whether or not our national defenses shall be 
increased, but rather as to how far prepar- 
edness is to go and what form it is to 
take. 

There are, however, two dangers of an oppo- 
site character which may develop from the pres- 
ent situation. The first is that the prepared- 
ness movement, at present sustained by events 
in Europe and Mexico, may later evaporate in 
inconsequential hysteria. The second is that, 

200 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

in spite of the protestations of its advocates, it 
may foster militarism. 

For the avoidance of these two possibilities 
a rational, patriotic education is needed. Such 
instruction the French have made the psycho- 
logical basis for the national defense. Such 
instruction they have used, though not with 
complete uniformity, to oppose chauvinism. So 
in our own country the right sort of education 
ought to furnish the most effective means for 
reconciling adequate preparedness with those 
pacific ideals which we have always professed. 
In the development of such instruction America 
can learn much from the merits and defects of 
the patriotic teachings of France and Germany. 

The apathy and ignorance of many Ameri- 
cans in the presence of contemporary crisis 
furnish one of the clearest indications of the 
inadequacy of the patriotic instiniction now 
given in our schools. It is significant that a 
leading educator has recently written that ^'for 
a generation past the teaching of civics aimed 
at little more than the acquisition of knowledge 
about government. It was assumed that the 
school's function did not extend beyond an in- 
tellectual treatment of social and political wel- 
fare. The subject matter was formal and nec- 

201 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

essarily barren, remote from ordinary human 
interests, and more remote still from any con- 
cerns of children. " ^ It is even more significant 
that the index of the 1915 volume of the ^'Ad- 
dresses and Proceedings of the National Edu- 
cation Association," which contains some eight- 
een references to vocational education, contains 
none to patriotism.^ Nor is this heading to be 
found in the index of any of the preceding vol- 

^ Suzzallo, H., in Hill, M. : The Teaching of Civics, Ed- 
itor's Introduction, p. v. 

2 The tone of certain resolutions adopted at the 1915 
meeting of the National Education Association was de- 
cidedly pacificist. This year (1916), after some debate, a 
resolution, mild enough, yet very different from those of 
last year, was adopted. The Association "affirms its belief 
that the instruction in the school should tend to furnish the 
mind with the knowledge of the arts and sciences on which 
the prosperity of the nations rests and to incline the will 
of men and nations toward acts of peace; it declares its 
devotion to America and Amencan ideals and recognizes 
the claims of our beloved country on our property, our 
minds, our hearts, and our lives. It records its conviction 
that the true policy to be followed both by the school and by 
the nation which it serves is to keep the American public 
school free from sectarian interference, partisan politics 
and disputed public policies, that it may remain unimpaired 
in its power to serve the whole people. While it recog- 
nizes that the community, or the state, may introduce such 
elements of military training into the schools as may seem 
wise and prudent, yet it believes that such training should 

202 



1 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

umes for at least eight years. This is the more 
noticeable as the work of this association fur- 
nishes probably the clearest indication of the 
general trend of contemporary educational 
thought in the United States. It is said that in 
the mountain regions of some of the Southern 
States there are many children who have never 
even seen an American flag.^ Conditions are 
better, indeed, than they were ten years ago. 
Something has been done to improve our de- 
plorably insufficient instruction in patriotism. 
But the problem is not to be solved simply by 
the passage of laws requiring schools to display 
in a conspicuous place the American flag, or 
requiring the children to salute it, or setting 
apart a day in its honor. It is not to be solved 
simply by expecting pupils to learn the national 
airs, or to study civics and American history 
after the old-fashioned manner. What is 
needed is a great national awakening. 

The most obvious form of educational pre- 
paredness is that of military drill in the public 

be strictly educational in its aim and organization, and that 
military ends should not be permitted to pervert the edu- 
cational purposes and practices of the school." 

^ This is vouched for by a prominent member of the So- 
:'*ty of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

203 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

schools. Prompted by the present excitement, 
the legislatures of several states have turned 
their attention to this matter, and New York 
has actually passed a law requiring, among 
other things, that schoolboys between sixteen 
and nineteen years of age shall drill regularly. 
The experience of France, however, warns 
against the over-confident enthusiasm wliich 
sees in the khalvi-clad high school lad a tower 
of strength in time of trouble. Long before the 
present war had revealed how wide was the 
gap between the parade ground and the battle- 
field, patriotic Frenchmen were inclined to look 
with disfavor ^ on those bataillons scolaires in 
which they had taken such pride in the earlier 
days of the Republic- The American scholar, 
Farrington, writing of the P>ench primary 
schools in the early twentieth century, reports, 
**The only military drill that I ever found was 
confined to simple marches and squad evolu- 
tions entirely without arms. Even this is found 
but rarely." ^ ^'Do you prepare men!" General 
Chanzy once said, addressing a gathering of 

^ De Coubertin : "Bataillons Scolaires ou Cowboys," in 
Le Foyer, Jan. 1, 1913. 

2 Hanriot : Yive la France ! p. 8. 

^ The Public Piimar^- School System of France, p. 114. 

204 



THE LESSOX FOR AMERICA 

teachers. ^^ Leave to us the task of making sol- 
diers/' ^ 

The skepticism of the French in regard to the 
efficacy of military drill in the schools is par- 
alleled by the findings of the legislative commis- 
sion appointed to consider the question in Mas- 
sachusetts. Having shared in the investigation 
conducted by this body, Commissioner Snedden 
reports that such military drill as is taught in 
schools can have little functional significance 
in war as it is now waged. For example, orders 
on the battlefield ^^are given by whistles and 
signals, just as you see in the case of a fore- 
man of a great building; and there are orders 
that are whispered along from man to man. 
But that beautiful way of shouting out orders 
is a thing of the past." ^ Rifle practice, how- 
ever. Dr. Snedden considers valuable. ^^I do 
not see why we should not train boys of twelve 
years with the rifle. Boys of twelve are plas- 
tic." ^ Furthermore, he advocates the develop- 
ment of a program of physical training for 
high school boys.^ All these things show that 

^ Quoted by De Coubertin, in Le Foijer, Jan. 1, 1913. 
- Snedden : Military Training in the High School in Edu- 
vation, May, 1916, p. 613. 
» Ibid., p. 614. 
*Ibid., p. 615. 

205 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

little reliance can be placed in war time on the 
results of the old-fashioned military drill. 
Something may be done perhaps to prepare the 
schoolboy for the actual tasks of the soldier. It 
is noticeable that the Boy Scout movement met 
with some sympathy in France in the years 
immediately preceding the world-conflict Its 
activities, like those suggested by Commis- 
sioner Snedden, bear a real relation to warfare. 
But in making ready for the day of national 
danger, the chief concern of the French school 
has been with the mind and heart of the boy 
rather than with his body. Likewise for the 
defense of America, the development of a vig- 
orous psycholog}^ of patriotism and loyalty is 
more necessary than the fonnal drilling of high 
school cadets. 

High ideals and definite knowledge should 
constitute the basis of this psychology. Recent 
educational experimentation tends to confirm 
the ancient belief that right habits are best 
formed where right ideals have been patiently 
inculcated. There is today too much sentimen- 
tality in the teaching of patriotism in America, 
too little true sentiment. Love of country is 
taught, but the duty of self-sacrifice for the sake 
of the Fatherland is not brought home to the 

206 



THE LESSON FOR AMEEICA 

American boy with sufficient emphasis. In 
France and Germany, on the other hand, the 
minds and hearts of school-children are im- 
pregnated, from their earliest days, with a stern 
sense of responsibility toward the nation in 
peace and in war. French boys learn something 
of the grim realities of war ; but they learn, too, 
that they must be prepared to face these reali- 
ties if their country demands it. So in the 
United States the old individualistic ideal in 
education, redolent of the pioneer spirit, must 
yield to the ideal of national responsibility. The 
American must be trained, from childhood, as 
the Frenchman has been, to make whatever sac- 
rifice an endangered Fatherland may demand. 
Nor is a general willingness to defend one's 
country in time of war the sole demand which 
national mihtary efficiency makes upon the 
psychology of the schoolboy. Courage and 
coolness must, as far as possible, become sec- 
ond nature with him. We admire the heroic 
deeds of the French or German soldier in to- 
day's conflict, but at the same time we are prone 
to assume that war changes a man's psycholor-y 
over night, transforming a ribbon-counter cler.c 
into a prodigy of valor. We forget that from 
childhood the ideal of courage has been fos- 

207 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tered in him. So must it be fostered in the 
American boy — far more than it is at present. 

Idealism must be accompanied by intelli- 
gence. The defeat of France in the Franco- 
German War stands as a terrible warning 
against ignorant over-confidence. The intellec- 
tual efficiency of the Prussian soldier in the 
same struggle shows the value of discriminating 
knowledge. Much of this knowledge was incul- 
cated, of course, during the years of com- 
pulsory military training; but its foundation 
was laid in the school. 

In our own country it is necessary first of 
all that American history for schools should 
be written in a different way, and taught in a 
different way, from that in use at present. The 
trouble with the average historical text is not 
so much that specific facts are misrepresented 
as that the general perspective is wrong. The 
impression gained from a perusal of one of 
these works is that while our troops were de- 
feated in individual battles, their record as a 
whole has been brilliantly successful. Even 
where defeated, they fought heroically, yielding 
only to overwhelming numbers or because of 
circumstances over which they had no control. 
The calm confidence of many American citizens 

208 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

that embattled fanners can always be counted 
on to repel the invasions of a foreign foe is 
based largely on what they learned of Ameri- 
can histoiy in school. Of the origins of their 
point of view these worthy citizens are nat- 
urally unconscious, just as the Germans are un- 
conscious of the origins of their present war 
psychology. Such instruction leads easily to 
the belief that an unprepared United States can 
''lick the world.'' Its influence cannot but be 
pernicious in the hour of danger. 

Patriotism, as well as scholarship, demands 
that school children know not merely the truth, 
but the whole truth. The weakness and ineffec- 
tiveness of our military policy at various pe- 
riods of our history should not be concealed 
from them. They should know, for example, of 
the disastrous battle of Bladensburg, which pre- 
ceded the capture of the city of Washington in 
1814. *^0n the 24th of August," says the can- 
did Upton, ^^the army described by its com- 
mander as ^suddenly assembled without or- 
ganization,' or discipline, or officers with the 
least knowledge of service, numbered 5,401, of 
whom 400 were regulars, 600 marines, and 20 
sailors, the remainder being volunteers and 
militia. 

209 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

'^The same day the army thus hastily as- 
sembled was as hastily formed in order of bat- 
tle at Bladensburg, where, in the presence of 
the President and the Cabinet, it was attacked 
and routed with the loss of but 8 killed and 11 
wounded. 

^^ . . The British force . . . numbered 
3,500, of which only a part of the advance divi- 
sion of 1,500 were engaged." ^ Upton contrasts 
this battle with that of Lundy's Lane, a month 
earlier, where American regulars fought with 
the greatest courage and endurance. Of the 
War of 1812 in general, the same writer says, 
*^The lessons of the war are so obvious that 
they need not be stated. Nearly all the blun- 
ders committed were repetitions in an aggra- 
vated fonii of the same blunders in the Revo- 
lution, and like them had their origin either in 
the mistakes or omissions of military legisla- 
tion."^ If these things be true, American 
children have a right to know them. There is 
plenty of heroism in our history; there is no 
need of trying to find it where it is not.^ And 

1 Military Policy of the United States, pp. 127-128. 

2 Ibid., p. 142. 

^ George Washington thus criticizes American military 
policy: "Had we formed a permanent army in the begin- 

210 



THE LESSON FOR ALIERICA 

our national future mil be much better pro- 
moted by a frank acknowledgment of past 
weaknesses than by bombastic national glori- 
fication. France has pointed the way. 

Furthermore, our youth should know of the 
law of the continuity of history. They would 
then realize that the nations of the world are 
most unlikely to break suddenly with their past 
habits and that therefore any immediate real- 
ization of the ideal of universal peace is prac- 
tically an impossibility. If there were no other 
arguments against pacificism this law alone 
ought to deal it a deathblow. 

With greater impartiality in the study of 
history should go a fuller and more accurate 

ning, which by the continuance of the same men in service, 
had been capable of discipline, we never should have had to 
retreat with a handful of men across the Delaware in 1776, 
trembling for the fate of America, which nothing but the 
infatuation of the enemy could have saved; we should not 
have remained all the succeeding winter at their mercy, 
with sometimes scarcely a sufficient body of men to mount 

* the ordinary guards, liable at every moment to be dissi- 
pated, if they had only thought proper to march against 
us. . . . Had we kept a permanent army on foot the 

i enemy could have had nothing to hope for, and would in all 
probability have listened to terms long since/' Ibid., pp. 

1 53-54, from Sparks' "Writings of Washington," Vol. 7, pp. 
162, 164. 

211 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING ^ 

knowledge of present conditions. In connec- 
tion with the study of geography, specific in- 
formation should be given in regard of the 
strength and efficiency of our army and navy as 
compared with those of other great countries. 
The condition of our fortifications, the weak- 
nesses of our frontier should be known. Fur- 
thermore, the expense involved in adequate 
preparedness should not be concealed; but the 
children, having been taught the necessity of 
such expense, should be led to a willingness to 
share later in the financial burdens involved. 
Finally there should be some study of the for- 
eign problems which confront the government. 
In this connection regular instruction should 
be given in current history, than which there is 
probably no subject better calculated to create 
a permanent interest in the affairs of the na- 
tion. 

By such means, perhaps, the present insidious 
apathy in regard to the vital concerns of our 
country can be partially removed. The rising 
generations will learn that they are living, not 
in a Utopia, but in a man-made world where it 
behooves every nation to be on its guard. If 
the feminine influence in American education 
is not too strong, a more virile patriotism can 

212 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

be developed. There can be inculcated a strong- 
er feeling of obligation, a sterner sense of duty 
toward the Fatherland. 

Alarmists may protest that instruction of 
this character will lead to militarism. But there 
is no fundamental reason why it should do so. 
No doubt certain French writers of textbooks 
have striven to inculcate in the youth of 
France the desire for war ^vith Germany. No 
doubt a narrowly nationalistic instruction in 
Germany has fostered the spirit of conquest. 
But against chauvinism it is always possible 
for education to guard; and the school can do 
much to promote international amity. 

To attain these happy results the school 
should first of all emphasize the fact that the 
army and navy are for the defense of the na- 
tion, not to further national aggression. Every- 
thing that savors of the braggart spirit, that 
tends to hostility toward any other country, 
should be expunged from the teaching of the 
schools. 

In this connection, again, the study of 
American history needs a thorough revision. 
For this subject has helped to perpetuate the 
effete idea that Great Britain is our hereditary 
enemy. That this has been done incidentally 

213 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

to national glorification rather than of set pur- 
pose scarcely lessens its harmfulness. ^'The 
widespread spirit of hostility which, like a 
prairie fire, swept over the country after Presi- 
dent Cleveland's Venezuelan message, and 
which utterly amazed England, was a startling 
revelation of latent belligerency due largely to 
a narrow and false teaching of history."^ 
Fortunately, modern historical scholarship is 
turning to documents less biased than the time- 
honored Annual Register, on which so many 
histories of the American Revolution were so 
largely built. It is to be hoped that the spirit 
of this newer research will more and more thor- 
oughly permeate the teaching of history in our 
schools. 

Education can hasten in a more positive way, 
however, the era of good feeling among the na- 
tions. For example, more sympathetic atten- 
tion can be given to the history and civilization 
of foreign countries. It is one of the weak- 
nesses of the educational systems of France and 
Germany that each country inclines to give dis- 
proportionate attention to itself. In the pri- 
mary schools of France, according to Farring- 
ton, ^Hhe work in geography and history is 

^ Mead : Patriotism and the New Internationalism, p. 15. 

214 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICA 

confined almost exclusively to France and her 
colonies, most of the other parts of the world 
receiving only hasty consideration."^ For- 
tunately for the cause of inteiTiational amity, 
however, Europe has long been the Mecca of 
American devotees of culture. The little school- 
mistress, who has hoarded her slender savings 
for the long-anticipated Cook's tour, returns 
from her trip full of respect and admiration for 
the countries she has visited. Her sympathetic 
interpretation does much to inspire in her pu- 
pils like feelings for the peoples of these lands. 
But much more might be done through educa- 
tion to develop a friendly attitude toward other 
nations. The government might send Ameri- 
can pupils as well as American teachers, in 
large numbers, to study abroad, receiving in 
return similar educational representatives from 
foreign parts. The textbooks of other coun- 
tries, too, might be used in American schools, 
thus promoting at one and the same time the 
study of foreign languages and the sympathetic 
appreciation of foreign peoples. Especially 
ought friendship with the South American 
states to be strengthened in such ways as these. 

^ Farrin^on : Public Primary School System of France, 

p. 111. 

215 



PATRIOTS IN THE AIAKING 

Thus can be lessened the dangers of interna- 
tional misunderstandings and disputes. 

It is possible, then, to make of education in 
America a great political instrument which 
shall lay a psychological foundation for a 
strong national defense and at the same time 
restrain chauvinism, and pave the way for a 
realization of the ideal of human brotherhood. 
On the one hand can be inculcated that self- 
sacrificing devotion to the Fatherland which in- 
spires the schools of France and Germany. On 
the other hand can be developed that true 
friendship toward other countries which must 
inevitably precede the complete attainment of 
international amity. But it must be remem- 
bered that education is not itself a creative 
force; it simply intensifies ideals and purposes 
already dominant in the national life. If, how- 
ever, well-considered public opinion really de- 
mands preparedness, education can strengthen 
and rationalize this sentiment. If the heart of 
the nation is at the same time bent on the avoid- 
ance of militarism, education can be used as 
a safeguard. Always it can be Reason's most 
effective weapon in her struggle against Ig- 
norance and Passion. 



CHAPTER Vni 

MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

A German who was once asked to address a 
group of American students in regard to his 
school experiences concluded with an account 
of his training in the army of the Fatherland. 
For the army, as he pointed out, is the apex 
of the German school system. Practically every 
male citizen is compelled by law to undergo 
some military instruction, and his character is 
decidedly affected thereby. Nor is Germany 
alone in accepting the principle of universal 
compulsoiy service. France, too, has long had 
her citizen army, as have all the chief powers 
of the world save England and the United 
States. Even Smtzerland and Australia have 
become ^'nations in arms''; and it has been sug- 
gested that the military systems of these two 
lands have features well worthy of imitation 
in our o^vn country. It is claimed that they 
offer the advantages of adequate defense with- 

217 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

out impairing the liberties of the individual, 
or leading to militarism. Since belief in these 
ideas seems to be growing, it is quite possible 
that before long the obligation to undergo a 
limited amount of military service even in time 
of peace, will be regarded in the United States 
as a normal corollary of citizenship. 

Modern conscription, contrary to a widely 
accepted popular belief, is of French rather 
than of German origin. In the early years of 
the Revolutionaiy period, when France was 
in imminent danger from hosts of foreign sol- 
diers who threatened to overrun the land, sup- 
press the new social forces which had taken 
control of the country, and reestablish the An- 
cient Regime in all its former pomp and power, 
the liability of all able-bodied citizens to 
serve in the army was decreed. While the 
means of enforcement were at first inadequate, 
nevertheless large forces of men were raised in 
this manner. Numbers and enthusiasm for the 
Revolution atoned in part for lack of training, 
and military success testified to the efficacy of 
conscription. It was not until 1789, however, 
that the compulsory principle was finnly estab- 
lished. In that year General Jourdan intro- 
duced into the Council of Five Hundred a law 

218 



MILITAEY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

which ''remained practically unaltered as the 
basis of the French military organization down 
to 1870. The law definitely laid down the liabil- 
ity of every able-bodied French citizen to serve 
from his twentieth to his twenty-fifth year, leav- 
ing it to circumstances to determine how many 
classes or what proportion of each should be 
called up for service. Finally after much dis- 
cussion the right of exemption by payment of 
a substitute was conceded, and therein lay the 
germ of the disaster of 1870."^ It was this 
law which made possible Napoleon's boast to 
Mettemich, ''I can afford to expend thirty 
thousand men a month. " ^ It was this law 
and the successes that attended its operation 
which in the end forced the other European 
states to pass similar measures, and substi- 
tuted the armed nation for the professional 
army.* 

If, however, modern conscription is of French 
origin, the principle of the trained reserve force 
is attributable to Prussian influence. The 
awakening of the soul of Prussia, which fol- 

^ Article on Conscription, in the eleventh edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. VI, p. 973), by Col. Maude, 
the English military critic. 

2 Ibid., p. 972. 

'Ibid.; Johnston: Arms and the Race, p. 49. 

219 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

lowed the battle of Jena and initiated that great 
movement for patriotic education which has 
been previously described, found its most im- 
mediately effective expression in a mihtary ref- 
ormation of tremendous significance. A mili- 
tary commission was appointed with Scharn- 
horst at the head. Him Henderson describes 
as ^^unmilitary, almost slovenly in appearance, 
with no objection to munching his evening meal 
in the streets or parks of Hanover, yet by vir- 
tue of necessity an ideal conspirator, with as 
many folds in his conscience, Treitschke has 
said, as wrinkles on his simple face.^'^ With 
Schamhorst were associated men like Clause- 
vritZy Gneisenau and Boyen, whose names will 
live long in the military history of Germany. 
Under the influence of this commission incom- 
petent army officers were punished, the luxuries 
of officers in the field were curtailed, and op- 
portunity for promotion was opened to those 
not of noble birth. The treatment of the com- 
mon soldier was vastly improved, and instead 
of being subjected to inhuman and degrading 
punishment for minor offenses, the iron dis- 
cipline of earlier times was relaxed, and he was 
treated as a self-respecting human being. 

1 Shoil History of Gennany, Vol. II, p. 278. 

220 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

Finally the famous Kriimpersystem was intro- 
duced. 

The aim of this system was to expand the 
army by means of reserves. By a secret article 
of the Franco-Prussian Convention of Septem- 
ber 8, 1808, Napoleon, in the insolence of a 
power which seemed to find especial delight in 
the humiliation of Pinissia, had demanded that 
that state ^^ should limit her army to 42,000 men 
for at least ten years, and should not form a 
militia or a national guard." ^ To this demand 
Prussia perforce agreed, but met the situation 
by training troops as thoroughly as possible 
and passing them into the reserves, filling their 
places at regular intervals with raw recruits 
who in turn went through the same process. 
Thus while the standing army never at any one 
time exceeded the stipulated number of 42,000, 
as many as 150,000 men were available by 1812 
for effective use whenever the call to arms 
might come.2 How well these reservists could 
fight, Napoleon learned to his sorrow in Octo- 
ber, 1813, at the fateful Battle of the Na- 
tions. 

The Prussian system of military training 

^ Cambridge Modern History, Vol. IX, p. 333. 
2 Ibid. 

221 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

was made permanent by Boyen's law, pro- 
claimed on September 3, 1814. '^Boyen's law 
opens/ ^ says Professor Ford/ ^Svitli the words 
of Frederick William I, * Every citizen is bound 
to defend his Fatherland.' The obligation 
rested upon all after the twentieth year. Five 
years were to be passed in the standing army — 
three of these in active service and two as re- 
servists on leave. Then came seven years in 
the first Ciill of the Landwehr, with the obliga- 
tion to serve abroad as well as at home, to par- 
ticipate in occasional reviews and drills on set 
days, and once annually to participate with the 
regular army in larger maneuvers. The second 
summons of the Landivehr filled out seven years 
more with occasional drills, the obligation to 
do garrison duty in war, and the possibility of 
service abroad in need. After these nineteen 
years they were to hold themselves ready for 
service in the Landsturm, which included all 
those between the ages of seventeen and fifty 
who were in any way able to bear arms. Its 
uses were purely defensive. The citizens who 
could show a certain degree of education and 
could furnish their o^\^l arms and uniforms 

^Boyen's Military Law, in American Historical Review, 
Vol. XX, pp. 536-537 (April, 1915). 

222 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

served only one year with the colors and then 
generally in special troops {Jciger and SchuU 
zen)j followed by two years as reservists, and 
had a prior right to officers' places in the Land- 
icehr. The standing army was to form the core 
of this army, thus preserving in the new na- 
tional army the best proved product of the old 
regime. ' ' This law the same writer believes to 
be the most important statute of the nineteenth 
century.^ It has served as a model for the mili- 
tary systems of all the leading European pow- 
ers save England alone. 

It is remarkable how closely the general tenor 
of the laws governing compulsory military 
training in Germany at the present time re- 
sembles that of the Prussian act of 1814, al- 
though of course certain lesser differences are 
to be noted. The term of service in the stand- 
ing army (in time of peace) is now seven years 
instead of five, but the actual training of in- 
fantry with the colors is two years instead of 
three. Thus the period for reserve service in 
the standing army has been increased from two 

ars to five.^ During these five years the re- 

^ Ibid. 

^ For cavalry and horse artillery the terms are three 
years in the ranks, four in the reserv^e. 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

servist is expected to join Ms corps for actual] 
training twice, for periods of not over eight] 
weeks each. 

Terms in the Landivehr and Landsturm 
are somewhat shorter today than under Boyen's 
law, so that liability to military service ends 
at forty-five instead of fifty years of age. 
The chief duty of the Landwehr in time of war 
is supposed to be that of garrisoning the home 
fortresses and manning the coast defenses. 
^'Thoy also furnish the armies to occupy con- 
quered territory, to guard prisoners, and to 
assimie every duty that will prevent the diver- 
sion of troops from the battle lines at the 
front." ^ The Landsturm is supposed to be 
used purely for home defense. Extraordinary 
conditions may of course force a modification 
of these regulations. 

The system of one-year volunteers, decreed 
by Boyen's law, is also retained at the present 
time. Young men who have passed certain ex- 
aminations are aUowed to complete their service 
in the ranks in one year. They are expected, 
however, to pay their o^vn expenses during this 
period, which ^^are reckoned at from four hun- 

^ O'Ryan and Andei-son : The Modern Army in Action, 
p. 53. 

224 



MILITAEY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

dred to five hundred and fifty dollars.'^ ^ From 
these men most of the reserve officers are 
chosen. 

A certain proportion of the able-bodied men 
of Germany have been able, in time of peace, 
to escape the military training just outlined. 
The population of the Empire has increased so 
rapidly since 1871 that more men have been 
available for service than the government felt 
that it needed, or could afford to train thor- 
oughly. These men, escaping conscription by 
lot, or rejected by the military authorities be- 
cause of minor physical disabilities, form what 
is known as the Ersatzreserve. Their ^'special 
function is to supply men to replace war losses 
so as to maintain the companies in the field at 
full strength. For twelve years they are car- 
ried in this reserve and during this time they 
are called out for a total of three periods of 
training, lasting ten, six and four weeks respec- 
tively. " ^ In the event of war their training is 
completed as rapidly as possible. 

The fighting strength of Germany at the 
opening of the present war consisted, then, (1) 

^ Fullerton, G. S. : Germany of Today, p. 91. 
2 O^Ryan and Anderson : The Modem Army in Action, 
-. 51. 

225 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

of a standing army composed of three classes 
of men: first, those who were serving a two 
years' term in the ranks and w^ere continually 
in training; second, those who were serving a 
five-year period in the reserve in readiness for 
action, but accountable for only two compara- 
tively brief periods of training in time of peace ; 
and third, the one-year volunteers; (2) of a 
Landwehr, ready for garrison and other duties 
in the event of war; (3) of a Landsturm for 
home defense; and (4) of an Ersatzreserve to 
supply vacancies created in the active army by 
the casualties of war. 

It is not necessary to discuss the French sys- 
tem in detail. After her crushing defeat in 
1870, France determined to reorganize her 
army according to the Prussian model. Hence 
the military law of July 27, 1872, rendering 
every Frenchman liable to service between the 
ages of twenty and forty. Substitution was 
abolished, though certain classes were allowed 
partial or complete exemption. The period with 
the colors was fixed at five years. Germany 
gasped with astonishment, tried to bully 
France, and then to isolate her, but to no avail. 
Not till 1889, when passions waned and calmer 
thoughts prevailed, did France reduce the term 

226 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

of active service to three years. In 1905, after 
the Dreyfus case and its attendant circum- 
stances had aroused a large part of the people 
to feverish opposition to the army, service with 
the colors was reduced to two years, but at the 
same time exemptions, save those for physical 
disability, were abolished. The year before the 
outbreak of the present war, however, France, 
alarmed at measures taken by Germany to in- 
crease the standing army and to lay up new 
stores of ammunition, raised the term of serv- 
ice to three years again, and prepared for the 
inevitable. Discussing in July, 1913, this army 
bill of France, a writer in the Edinburgh Re- 
view is reminded of a passage in the Chamber 
of Deputies in 1868 between Jules Favre and 
Marechal Niel, apropos of a proposed increase 
in the army, ^^ Would you, then, make of France 
a barracks?" exclaimed Favre; to which Niel 
replied, ^ ' Take care that you do not make of her 
a cemetery." This was but two years before 
the battle of Sedan.^ 

It need hardly be said that both France and 
i Germany have taken mihtary training with the 
' utmost seriousness, and that the individual citi- 
' zen is far from finding his years of service a 

^ Edinburgh Review, July, 1913, p. 235. 

227 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

sinecure. In the German army tlie recruit is 
first taught to walk in military fashion, to stand 
straight, and to take part in squad evolutions. 
Then he learns the use of the rifle and is trained 
in close order drill. During the summer months 
he is taken out into the open, is hardened physi- 
cally, and prepared for the August and Sep- 
tember maneuvers. These maneuvers approach 
as nearly as possible actual war conditions.^ 
The following extract from an account given 
some ten years ago by one who had undergone 
this training shows how its hardships and bru- 
talities stand out in the soldier's mind: ^ 

**If I live to be a hundred," says the writer, 
*'I will never forget those few initial weeks. 
They were simply hell. The first two weeks I 
was taught how to walk. Here was I, fully 
grown man — at twenty a lad thinks, he knows it 
all — being instructed in the art of walking prop- 
erly. I felt like a child ; it hurt my pride. For 
three hours every morning, and for two each 
afternoon, I had to walk back and forth, a regu- 
lar moving clothes dummy. If this was the 

^ O'Ryan and Anderson : The Modem Army in Action, 
pp. 47-49. 

2 Schultz, E. : "A Soldier of the Kaiser," in the Indepen- 
dent, August 23, 1906, pp. 430 ff. 

228 



MILITAEY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

glorious life of a soldier, I already had my fill 
of it. At times I would rebel mentally, and, in 
consequence, my walk would become sloucliy. 
I was quickly brought to my senses by the lan- 
guage hurled at me by the officers, which was 
coarsely forcible and far from complimentary 
to me. But it made me walk. ' ' 

He then goes on to tell how poor the food 
was ; how, after he had learned to walk, he was 
drilled in marching with other recruits, and 
then was taught to carry a rifle. The process of 
learning to wear a helmet he describes as al- 
most unendurable. ^ ' The leather lining gripped 
my forehead, and the helmet itself pressed so 
heavily that at times I thought I should go 
stark, raving mad. But the w^atchful eye of the 
officer was continuously focused upon me, and 
I was more afraid of offending that vigilant 
taskmaster than of anything else. 

''. . . Of course, army regulations forbid an 
officer to abuse and strike a private, but they 
do it, nevertheless. 

^^One day I was almost prostrate with fa- 
tigue. In spite of all my efforts to the contrary, 
my chin would occasionally stick itself out in a 
most unsoldierly manner. An officer noticed it. 
Without a word of warning, he dealt me a ter- 

229 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

rible blow on the offending jaw. I saw stars 
for a time, but I had to accept my punishment 
without a murmur. . . . They have a rule in 
the German army that if a private is abused or 
maltreated by an officer, he is not allowed to 
report the outrage until the next day. This 
gives the poor fellow a night's sleep to calm 
down and to weigh the matter carefully. He 
can then — if he be so disposed — take his griev- 
ance to a superior officer. Woe unto the com- 
plainant if he fail in proving his case abso- 
lutely! Even if he make it good, he is thence- 
forth a marked man. Instead of being occa- 
sionally the butt of one officer's anger, he now 
becomes a scapegoat to all his superiors. So 
it always happens that, after a night's thinking 
over tlie matter, the victim sees the folly of 
heaping troubles upon his own head and decides 
to keep his mouth shut." 

After learning how to use the rifle effectively, 
the young soldier of the Kaiser was considered 
fit for field drill in the open country. ^* At six in 
the morning we breakfasted, and from that on, 
until four o'clock in the afternoon, we were 
either on the march or run. It was heart- 
breaking work, but a blessed and welcome relief 
from the drudgery and monotony of barracks 

230 



% 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

life. At the end of the first year we had our 
regimental drill, the maneuvers." 

His second year was much like the first and 
he was elated when his term of ser^^ice drew 
to a close. In spite of his sufferings, however, 
he concludes, ^*I am proud that I have served in 
the army of the Kaiser. While the training and 
ill-treatment nearly killed me, it made a man 
of me. The German army is all right. The 
abuses in it are what is wrong. Let us hope 
that time and our Emperor will rectify the evil, 
before it is too late." 

If the reader is tempted to think this bru- 
tality characteristic only of the German army, 
let him turn to the pages of Decle's '^Trooper 
3809," or even to the milder impressions of Pro- 
fessor Guerard, as set forth some five years 
ago in an article in the Popular Science 
Monthly} ''I have roughed it a good deal 
since those days," says M. Decle, ^^but I have 
no hesitation in saying that the time of my ac- 
tive service with the colors was the bitterest 
experience I ever underwent."^ He served in 
the 70 's, however, since which time conditions 

^ "Impressions of Military Life in France," in Popular 
'Science Monthly, Vol. LXXVIII, pp. 364-370. 
2 Decle : Trooper 3809, p. 8. 

231 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

have improved. M. Guerarcl, pointing out cer- 
tain dangers and abuses connected with mili- 
tary training, nevertheless says that it is, '*on 
the whole, a very unpleasant experience for any 
person of fastidious tastes and habits; toler- 
able for healthy individuals of an adaptable 
type; satisfactory for the great majority/'^ 
Complaint in France and Germany seems to 
have been chiefly of the brutality of under-offi- 
cers, and of the practical inability of the com- 
mon soldier to secure justice against their tyr- 
anny.^ As for the other hardships, real prep- 
aration for war cannot be child's play; a 
*^ natty'' uniform, a little-used rifle, and ** right 
forward, fours right" in the sunshine of fem- 
inine admiration will not equip a man for the 
death-duel. 

There are, however, few Americans who 

1 Op. cit., p. 36G. 

2 *^The act of striking a superior," says Decle, "meaning 
any man superior in rank to oneself, from a Corporal up- 
wards, is punished by Death, even in time of peace. Two 
instances occurred while I served. In the first instance a 
private bad struck a Corporal who bad bullied him in a 
most shameful way; in the second instance a Cor]^oral bad 
struck an ofBcer who had called his mother by a vile name. 
Both men were found guilty and publicly shot in the pres- 
ence of their regiment on special parade." Trooper 3809, 
p. 6. 

232 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

would not recoil from tlie thought of saddling 
our country with such militaiy burdens as 
France and Germany have carried for so many 
years. For us to undertake this load would be 
neither necessary nor right. On the other hand, 
as has been shown, there is a growing feeling 
that more should be done to improve our mili- 
tary organization. Our national position of 
aloofness from European affairs, of '^friend- 
ship with aU foreign nations, but entangling 
alliances with none," has perforce been 
changed to that of a member of the concert of 
powers interested in world affairs. But while 
our national position has changed, our national 
mechanism has not been altered to conform to 
new needs. We have no diplomatic force, be- 
cause no diplomatic class is systematically 
trained in this country as it is abroad. And 
we have no army — no army, that is, capable 
of resisting effectively any large force of 
efficient troops which might succeed in get- 
ting a foothold within our national boundaries. 
To remedy the defects of our military organ- 
ization two systems have been most prominently 
considered, the Swiss and the Australian. 
These are to the military systems of the great 
continental powers of Europe as vaccination is 

233 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

to the smallpox. Those who believe that the 
United States ought to be vaccinated against 
war cannot be indifferent to the workings of 
the citizen armies of Switzerland and Australia. 
They have striven to solve the problem of estab- 
lishing an adequate national defense without 
developing those features of the conscriptive 
system which are essentially distasteful to the 
American mind. 

*^A11 Swiss must perform military service,'* 
says the law of 1907. Those who are disquali- 
fied for physical or other reasons from active 
particii)ation must pay an exemption tax.^ As 
in Germany, the military organization is com- 
posed of an active army (known in Switzerland 
as the Slite or Auszug)^ a Landivehr, and a 
Landsturm. 

The foundations of military training are laid 
in the school. Education is compulsory between 
the ages of 7 and 15, and during this period the 
boys are required to undergo a stiff course in 
calisthenics and other physical exercises. Ri- 
valry in the national sports is also encouraged 

^ Military Law of the Swiss Confederation. Translated 
by Second Lieutenant Alexander P. Cronkhite. United 
States Senate, 64th Congress, 1st Session. Document 
No. 360. 

234 



MILITAEY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

and carefully directed. At the same time the 
boys are, in some cantons, obliged to become 
members of cadet corps, in whose service they 
are taught map reading, marching and target 
shooting. After leaving school and before be- 
ginning the regTilar training required by the 
state, they may, if they wish, become mem- 
bers of Military Preparation Companies. All 
this preliminaiy work, in school and out, is of 
no mean importance. ^^The physical and mili- 
tary preparation of the Swiss youth,'' says 
Captain Faesch,^ ''is an essential part of the 
Swiss military system." 

At twenty the young Swiss is given his arms 
and other equipment, which he is expected to 
keep always at home and in good condition.^ 
He is now ready for active training, and begins 
work at a recruit school under the supervision 
of a permanent military instructor. The period 
of service in this school varies from sixty days 
in the sanitary, veterinary and transportation 
corps, to ninety days in the cavalry.^ The 
training is intensive and therefore hard and 

^ The Swiss Army System, p. 9 (pamphlet published by 
^techert). 

2 Ibid., p. 9. 

^ Military Law of the Swiss Confederation. Senate Doc. 
360, 64th Cong., 1st Session. 

235 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

effective.^ **Each day at least eight hours ^ 
hard work is required, except on Sundays, and 
even then they are frequently sent out for night 
work in the evening. There is a great deal of 
night work, night firing, constructing trenches, 
etc., but it does not interfere with that required 
each day, for, although the recruits may be out 
until three o'clock in the morning, the work next 
day proceeds as usual." - If the work is stren- 
uous, however, it is soon over. Sixty to ninety 
days seem but a small amount of time com- 
pared to the two years of service in Germany, 
or three in France. 

The young militiaman is now a member of the 
£lite or active army. He is turned over to that 
branch of the army for which he has been fitted, 
and for several years thereafter is kept in 
fairly good trim for fighting by means of what 
are known as repetition courses. These occur 
at annual intervals and last for two weeks each. 
Conditions approach actual warfare as nearly 
as possible. 

At thirty-three the citizen becomes a member 
of the Landivelir. Every four years he is called 
out to undergo a repetition course lasting 

^ See Appendix II. 

2 Senate Doe. No. 796, 63d Cons:., 3d Session, p. 119. 

236 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

eleven days.^ The Landwelir furnishes troops 
for garrison duty,^ and is charged in time of 
Avar with snch operations as require endur- 
ance and tenacity of purpose rather than dar- 
ing. In war time it may also be used to fill va- 
cancies in the Elite.^ 

When he reaches the age of forty-one the sol- 
dier passes into the Landsturm, in wliich he re- 
mains until he is forty-eight. ^^ These Land- 
Sturm sections/^ says Captain Faesch,^ ^'are 
the very men wanted to protect the Swiss Rail- 
road Stations, tunnels and bridges, the Alpine 
roads and great passes, baggage columns, elec- 
tric central power stations and gunpowder 
factories. They form the Territorial Army, 
whereas the first and second classes form the 
Field Army. 

*' There is still another class, the non-armed 

Landsturm. This class comprises all those 

physically unfit as well as those volunteers who 

have not reached the necessary age or who are 

older than the law prescribes. According to 

their profession or abilities they have to help 

^ Military Law of the Swiss Confederation. Senate Doc. 
Ko. 360, C4th Cong., 1st Session. 

2 Senate Doc. No. 796, 63d Con<?., 3d Session, p. 131. 

3 Senate Doc. No. 360, 64th Cong., 1st Session, p. 23. 
* Swiss Army System, p. 12. 

237 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

wherever they are needed (as bakers, butchers, 
typists in staff offices, in ammunition factories, 
etc.).'' The LandsUirm may also be called upon 
to fill vacancies in the Landwehr and the £lite.^ 

A most important part of the Swiss system 
is the rifle practice which every man receives. 
All over Switzerland exist societies of sharp- 
shooters, semi-official in character. Every sol- 
dier carrying a gun is obliged by law to fire so 
many shots a year at a target. Unless he 
comes up to a certain standard, he is sum- 
moned, at his own expense, to a parade ground 
where he must take a special three days^ course 
in rifle practice. Every important festival has 
its contest in marksmanship. Shooting at a 
mark is, indeed, as much a national sport in 
Switzerland as cricket is in England. 

This intensive and practical training of the 
Swiss has been the chief influence in preventing 
their country from becoming a negligible factor 
in the military calculations of the European 
powers. Apart from geographical considera- 
tions the little republic could never have been 
overrun as was Belgium. 

In Australia, as in Switzerland, it is the duty 

^Mil. Law of Swiss, Senate Doc. 360, 64th Cong., 1st 
Session, p. 23. 

238 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

of all male citizens, save for a small number of 
exempted persons, to share in the national de- 
fense. For this duty the youth is prepared by 
a carefully devised system of instruction con- 
sisting of three stages: (1) the junior cadets, 
from 12 to 14 years of age; (2) the senior ca- 
dets, from 14 to 18 years of age; and (3) the 
citizen forces, from 18 to 26 years of age. 
This system, though organized during the past 
decade, '4s not new, but simply an exten- 
sion of the old cadet and militia organiza- 
tion to include all those who are physically 
fit instead of limiting membership to 'volun- 
teers.' " ^ 

The first stage, that of the junior cadets, is 
essentially preparatory. Ninety hours a year 
must be devoted to such work as general physi- 
cal training, marching drill and sometimes min- 
iature rifle shooting, s^vimming, organized run- 
ning exercises, and first aid to the injured. 
This training is in the hands of the schoolmas- 
ters.2 

The second stage, beginning at the age of 14, 

lasts four years, and bears a closer relation to 

' actual warfare than the first. The youth is ob- 

^ Senate Document No. 796, 63d Cong., 3d Session, p. 30. 
2 Ibid., pp. 33-34. 

239 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

ligated, during this period, to four wliole-day, 
twelve half-day, and twenty-four night drills 
(quarter-days), annually.^ The training is rig- 
orous in character, the aim being to develop 
as much soldierly ability as possible in the 
shortest space of time. It includes '* drills in 
marching, discipline, the handling of arms, 
physical drill, guard duty and minor tactics. 
A cadet rifle and belt are added to his (the 
cadet's) * junior' uniform and 10 per cent of 
the best shots are given target practice with the 
service rifle. ' ' ^ 

At the age of 18 or shortly thereafter the lad 
passes into the militia or citizen army. Here 
he is required to render a total of 16 days in 
the military and 25 in the engineering branches 
of the service annually. The act of 1909 pro- 
vides, however, '*that, except in time of inMni- 
nent danger or war, the last year of service 
in the citizen forces shall be limited to one regis- 
tration or one muster parade. " ^ In his twenty- 
seventh year he is dismissed from active serv- 

^ These last respectively not less than four hours, two 
hours, and one hour each. Senate Doc. No. 796, 63d Cong., 
3d Session, p. 50 ; Wood, L. : Our Military History, p. 231. 

2 Wood, op. cit., p. 231. 

s Sec. 125 of the Act of 1909, quoted in Wood, op. cit., 
p. 230. 

240 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

ice. There is much rifle practice during and 
after the years of training. There are, indeed, 
practically no reserves save rifle clubs, a fact 
which called forth the criticism of General Sir 
Ian Hamilton shortly before the outbreak of the 
great conflict. The mere fact that all male 
citizens may be called to the colors up to the age 
of sixty, he does not consider of itself a suffi- 
cient guaranty of military efficiency.^ In fact 
the system is too new to have been thoroughly 
tested, but defects can be remedied with time 
and experience. 

From what has been said it is evident that 
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 
society has given increasing recognition to the 
idea of the trained citizen army. Evolved from 
the distresses and dangers of France during the 
Revolution, the principle of conscription made 
possible Napoleon's vast expenditure of men, 
and thus contributed to his victories. Accepted 
by Prussia, and developed through her estab- 
lishment of a system of trained resei-ves, it 
contributed in turn to Napoleon's downfall. In 
the Franco-German War it again demonstrated 
] its terrible efficiency, and led France to build 
1 up a citizen army of her own on the Prussian 
^ Senate Doc. No. 796, 63d Cong., 3d Session, pp. 66-68. 

241 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

model. In general the continent of Europe has 
believed it necessary to imitate the example of 
Prussia. 

That the United States should impose upon 
herself such burdens as France and Germany 
have carried, no one but the most ardent mili- 
tarist could suggest. On the other hand, both 
the Swiss and Australian systems deserve the 
careful consideration of Americans. In the first 
place they do not require that large sacrifice 
of the individual's time which the conscriptive 
systems of the great European powers neces- 
sitate. Certainly they demand no more of the 
individual's time than he ought gladly to give 
to his country. Secondly, such time as is re- 
quired is used intensively; attention is concen- 
trated on essentials like rifle shooting, instead 
of being dissipated on the tricks of the parade 
ground. Furthermore, in each case control of 
the system is centralized, as it should be in or- 
der to attain the greatest military efficiency. 
In general each of these systems is well suited 
to the needs of a democracy. The defensive 
purpose of the training is strongly emphasized. 
There is little danger of the development of a 
military caste or of an aggressive military 
spirit. 

242 



MILITARY TRAINING IN EUROPE 

Mere imitation of tlie externals of the mili- 
tary systems of Switzerland or Australia, how- 
ever, cannot solve the problem of preparedness 
for the United States. ^'The Swiss system 
works wonderfully," says Norman Hapgood, 
*^not because of the system itself, but because 
of the spirit that the people put into the sys- 
tem. If the Swiss had no more sense of public 
duty, of what private sacrifice was reasonable 
in the individual, the system would not work 
at all. 

**The Swiss lesson is not a lesson in tech- 
nique. It is a lesson in citizenship. "We can- 
not imitate the Swiss army unless we imitate 
the Swiss spirit. We cannot have the Swiss 
army, or anything remotely resembling it, un- 
til we have Swiss sense of citizenship, Swiss 
respect for law, Swiss integrity in politics; 
until, in short, we are an intense political de- 
mocracy, at a constant white heat of civic feel- 
ing. That is what we need to learn from 
Switzerland." ^ In other words, adequate pre- 
paredness must rest on a psychologj' of patriot- 
ism. This psjxhology it is the duty of the 
school to develop. 

^ Hapgood, N. : Swiss Army Lesson, Harper's Weekly ^ 
July 17, 1915, p. 56. 

243 



3 



CHAPTER IX 



CONCLUSIONS 



As the battle of Jena awoke the slumbering 
nationalism of Prussia, so Sedan aroused from 
the comfortable lethargy of the Second Empire 
the patriotism of France. Like Fichte before 
him, Gambetta set his hopes for the future of 
his country on the development of a truly na- 
tional system of education. The task of France, 
however, was not entirely similar to that of 
Prussia. Prussia's object was, first of all, to 
escape from the domination of the military ge- 
nius who had conquered, humiliated, and in- 
sulted her. Behind this immediate aim lay the 
dream of a patriotism not narrowly Prussian 
but broadly German, a patriotism which was to 
draw together the divided elements of a noble 
race, and to raise that race to new heights of 
greatness under the rule of the Hohenzollerns. 
In the accomplishment of this latter purpose 
the school played a part not sufficiently recog- 
nized by historians. 

244 



CONCLUSIONS 

The work of French patriotism was, first, 
to develop an adequate national defense 
and rehabilitate national prestige. Sec- 
ondly, it was to place on a firm founda- 
tion the insecure stinicture of the Republican 
form of government. The strength and glory 
associated mth the ancient monarchy were to 
be revived by a democracy imbedded in the 
hearts of the people. The school was to sus- 
tain the state in its efforts to solve the 
problems which the Franco-German War had 
ushered in. 

The educational renaissance of France may 
be divided into four periods. During the first 
of these — ^lasting for more than a decade from 
the founding of the Third Eepublic — Eepublic- 
anism engaged with clericalism in a struggle to 
control the public school. However lofty the 
teachings of the Church — and what doctrines 
could be nobler than the fundamental tenets 
of Catholicism? — ardent republican patriots did 
not believe the clerical interpretation of them 
to be sufficiently adapted to the pressing needs 
of the time. The Church might indeed teacK 
love of France, but logically this love must be 
subordinated to devotion to Catholic principles. 
Patriotism could at best be only the second of 

245 



^1l 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

virtues ; republicans would place it first. Fur- 
thermore, the Church was implanting, in the 
hearts of the young, belief in monarchy, oppo- 
sition to the Republic. It was largely because 
of its power over the rising generations that 
Gambetta and his followers determined to crush 
clericalism. They would substitute the religion 
of La Patrie for Christianity itself. 

In the early eighties the ccole Idique was 
tablished ; and the second period of the edu 
tional renaissance began. The religion of the 
Fatherland held the field without a rival. The 
education of patriotism and loyalty was placed 
on a sound basis by the government, by devoted 
textbook writers, by zealous teachers. Chil- 
dren were trained to the belief that love of coun- 
try was the first of duties, and that the first ele- 
ment of that duty was to defend France from 
her enemies in time of war. Above all thought 
of self, the Fatherland must be enshrined in the 
hearts of her citizens. Hence her future de- 
fenders must learn courage, must be ready to 
endure the rigors of military training, must 
be prepared to make the pecuniary sacrifices 
which an adequate national defense would nec- 
essarily entail. They must not slumber in the 
false security of ignorance, but must be ever 

246 



CONCLUSIONS 

watchful in the presence of ever-threatening 
perils. 

Nor did the schoolbook writers of this pe- 
riod, or at any rate a goodly proportion of 
them, hesitate to point out where they con- 
ceived the chief source of danger to lie. In 
their view the foe of 1870 was watching and 
waiting, preparing to plunge its talons into the 
heart of France, to tear away flesh and vitals 
till the very lifeblood flowed out, leaving the 
country a dead carcass to be devoured by the 
imperial eagle. These writers taught, too, that 
Germany had already taken her pound of flesh 
in the form of Alsace-Lorraine, leaving in the 
breast of France a gaping wound. That wound 
must be healed. The younger generations must 
regain what the men of 1870 had, with all their 
courage, been unable to hold. 

At the same time the school was used to in- 
trench the Republican form of government. In- 
stead of learning to look forward to the re- 
establishment of monarchy as had the children 
of the seventies, the pupils of the ccole Idiqne 
were taught to shun the very thought of a royal- 
ist restoration, of imperialism, of dictatorship. 
Nor was the Church treated with that complete 
justice which the ideal of toleration demanded 

247 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 



I 



and which the government proclaimed would be 
realized. The religious beliefs of many little 
hearts were wounded; many were turned 
against the Church of their forefathers. In 
partial excuse it may be said that in the angry 
tempests of the time strict neutrality in matters 
of religion was practically impossible to many 
temperaments, however honestly they might 
strive for its attainment. On the other hand, 
French youth were taught to distrust the ex- 
treme opposite of clericalism; they were warned 
to avoid the pitfalls of revolutionary social- 
ism. To the jjrinciples of the Revolution of 
1789, however, they were instructed to give their 
heartfelt allegiance, for these principles, they 
were told, constituted the foundations of French 
liberty. The Third Republic was continuing 
and developing these principles, as well as re- 
storing the prestige of France and conferring 
new blessings on those living under her enlight- 
ened rule. In fine, to this Republic its future 
citizens must be prepared to render ^'the last 
full measure of devotion'^ ; this was the law and 
the prophets of the religion of La Patrie. 

From the time of its establishment the lay 
school has continuously inculcated patriotism 
and loyalty. Toward the close of the nineteenth 

248 



CONCLUSIONS 

century, liowever, began a period of reaction 
against the intense nationalism of earlier years. 
Disciples of various intellectual, political and 
social creeds clamored for recognition in the 
school, and attempted to undermine certain ten- 
ets of the religion of La Patrie. Thus a group 
of scientific historians demanded that unswerv- 
ing devotion to truth alone should characterize 
the writing and teaching of their subject. They 
insisted also that the attention given to military 
campaigns and exploits should be diminished, 
while the history of civilization should be 
brought to the foreground. Their efforts were 
crystallized in the programs of 1902 ; the glow 
of patriotic history seemed to pale before the 
cold, white light of science and the doctrine of 
evolution. 

Furthermore, humanitarian ideals knocked 
for admission at the door of the ecole Idiqite. 
These ideals ranged in scope from a mild oppo- 
sition to chauvinism, to a belligerent pacificism 
and a disheveled anarchy. Supporting them 
were the more or less ill-balanced theories of 
certain intellectuals, the clamors of syndical- 
ism, and the pecuniary discontent of a teaching 
proletariat. In the textbooks the doctrines of 
these people appeared chiefly in protests against 

249 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

war and international hatreds, in assertions of 
the brotherhood of man. Among certain teach- 
ers they sometimes took the form of acceptance 
of the tenets of international, revolutionary so- 
cialism, expressing themselves, perhaps, in in- 
sults to the French flag. Nationalists spoke of 
the crisis of patriotism in the schools. 

But the movement lacked depth. It probably 
weakened but little the carefully fostered psy- 
chology of national defense, though it must have 
curbed chauvinism and modified the teaching of 
revanche. Furthermore, its influence was brief. 
While the wild cries of anti-patriotism were re- 
sounding through the air, alarming those who 
held their country's good dearer than aught 
else, suddenly the German menace loomed dark- 
ly along the horizon of peace and prosperity. 
As the cloud grew blacker and blacker, the 
frightful onlookers ceased their petty squabbles 
and prepared to face unitedly the coming storm. 
Thus the years immediately preceding the pres- 
ent war constituted the fourth and last period 
of the educational revival. Not that revolu- 
tionary socialism died a sudden death; men 
sang the ^^ Internationale'^ on the very eve of 
the great conflict. But the crisis was passed. 
New school manuals appeared, intensely pa- 

250 



CONCLUSIONS 

triotic in character. The jeunesse intellectuelle 
showed new vigor, was more athletic, and 
above all responded more fervently than ever to 
the loudly voiced appeal for devotion to the 
Fatherland. France was herself again. 

The greatest immediate result of the educa- 
tion of patriotism and loyalty has been to lay a 
psychological foundation for a determined re- 
sistance to attack. In this respect the patriot- 
ism taught in the French schools is perhaps su- 
perior to that taught in Germany, since it is 
more discerning, more critical of national er- 
rors. In France are inculcated the misfortunes 
as well as the triumphs of the Fatherland; in 
Germany it is chiefly the triumphs. In so far, 
then, as education is a determining factor, the 
morale of the French soldier should be bet- 
ter in defeat than that of the German. If the 
tide should turn against the Hohenzollern Em- 
pire it will not be well for her sons to have 
imbibed a fanatical belief in her invincibility. 
To the United States, too, her sister repub- 
lic's careful development of the psychology of 
^ national defense should carry a lesson. It is 
< tmsafe to assume that there is a devoted pa- 
I triotism at the bottom of every American heart ; 
it is unsafe to assume that if such patriotism 
i 251 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

exists it can meet adequately the crises of mod- 
ern warfare. It is a crying shame, too, that 
our schools, colleges and universities leave in 
the hearts of youth so little desire to study our 
national problems, even to acquaint themselves 
with the major events of current history. It 
was self-confident ignorance that led France to 
Sedan. ]\Iust we, too, have a great disaster 
before the national consciousness is aroused t 
I am not of those who believe that any one coun- 
try is planning our destruction. But if from 
the kaleidoscope of events war should evolve, 
we must be ready to meet it. If eternal vigil- 
ance is the price of liberty in a democracy, then 
none too soon can we begin to give our future 
citizens some adequate idea of the problems 
which face us as a world power; none too soon 
can we begin to foster that spirit of courageous 
devotion to the Fatherland which is serving 
France so well in her hour of trial. 

On the other hand that tendency to the inten- 
sification of nationality, which has been the fun- 
damental characteristic of the history of the 
nineteenth century, should be shunned as the 
great political disease of modem civilization. 
While science and art, the steamship, the rail- 
road and the telegraph have been drawing the 

252 



CONCLUSIONS 

civilized countries of the world closer and closer 
together in their outward manifestations, the 
development of the principle of nationality has 
drawn them farther and farther apart in spirit. 
In earlier days Christianity strove to unite in 
one brotherhood the undeveloped states of west- 
ern Europe. To the theories of one universal 
Church and one universal Empire the medieval 
world subscribed. These visions have passed. 
Today each great nation tends to find in itself 
alone those qualities that are wholly admirable. 
Each tends to disparage the achievements of 
others, is unwilling, even unable, to grasp their 
points of view. Each deifies its own individu- 
ality. Thus have been engendered race-ego- 
isms, misunderstandings, suspicions and hatred. 
Open conflict was the inevitable product. 

In this intensification of the national spirit 

7 education has played a part of tremendous im- 
portance. It has catered to pride of race, it 
has fostered racial antagonisms. If France has 

( taught revanche, Germany has suggested con- 
quest of the lands once belonging to the Holy 

I Roman Empire. In the schoolrooms of each 
country has the idea of the hereditary enmity 
between the two found welcome. Each has neg- 

i lected the geography and history of other ooun- 

253 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

tries to emphasize its own, and in Germany his- 
tory has served as the humble minister of na- j 
tional self-glorification. In the schools of Italy 
irredentism has been taught. Nor is the United 
States exempt from the charge of having fos- 
tered antagonism through education. ''Ameri- 
cans," says Professor Morse Stephens, ''are 
taught from childhood to hate Britishers by the 
study of American history, and not only the de- 
scendants of the men who made the Revolution, 
but eveiy newly arrived immigrant child im- 
bibes hatred of the Great Britain of today from 
the patriotic ceremonies of the public school. '* ^ 
A strong statement, perhaps, but one which the 
memories of some of us tend to confirm. 

Two facts make clear the potency of the 
school as an instrument for the intensification 
of nationality. In the first place education has 
become practically universal in western Eu- 
rope and the United States. Only a small pro- 
portion of the inhabitants of a country can, 
then, escape its influence. Furthermore this in- 
fluence is exerted in the most impressionable 
years of life. ''The 'strength of early associa- 
tion,' '^ says William James, "is a fact so uni- 

^ Nationality and History, American Historical Review, 
Jan., 1916, p. 236. 

254 



CONCLUSIONS 

^versally recognized that the expression of it 
las become proverbial; and this precisely ac- 
)rds with the psychological principle that dur- 

Jing the period of growth and development the 
formative activity of the brain will be most 
available to directing influences."^ Further- 
more, ''in most of us, by the age of thirty, the 
character has set like plaster, and will never 
soften again/' ^ Such is the modern psycho- 
logical justification of the old saying that ''as 
the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." Individ- 
uals, indeed, will react against their early train- 
ing, but of the masses of a nation it can be 
pretty safely asserted that what they have been 
taught in childhood ^\tJ1 form the basis of their 
point of view in manhood. 

To those who believe that the catastrophe of 
today is the result of a Machiavellian plot be- 
tween the Kaiser and the Father of Lies, or to 
those who consider it the product of British 
greed and hypocrisy, the spirit of education in 
the various countries will seem to have no con- 
nection with the present war. To those who 
look beneath the diplomatic documents and 
other surface manifestations, however, for their 

^ Principles of Psycholog}', VoL I, p. 112. 
2 Ibid., p. 121. 

255 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 

final explanation of the conflict, the intensifica- 
tion of nationality through the school must ap- 
pear deeply significant. The noxious weeds of 
racial egotism and racial antagonism grow eas- 
ily and rankly in a soil thus fertilized. Little 
wonder that the warring nations of today fail to 
understand one another, that each believes in 
the essential righteousness of its own cause, 
in the essential perfidy of its enemies. A bla- 
tant chauvinism need not have permeated the 
school in order to attain these results. It is 
sufficient to have exalted unduly the national 
idea, to have interpreted other countries from 
an unsjTnpathetic point of view. It may be that 
nationalistic education is the chief underlying 
cause of the war. But even if the school is not 
fundamentally responsible for today's struggle, 
at least it has fostered conditions out of which, 
in the present stage of human evolution, war 
must sometime have inevitably developed. . 

Nevertheless it may well be that for these 
very conditions the school itself can become the 
most effective remedy. 

The bright vision of universal peace is today 
dimmed by the smoke and dust of the battle- 
field. International socialism has postponed 
indefinitely its dream of abolishing warfare 

256 



CONCLUSIONS 

through a unification of the proletariat. Dis- 
armament appears impossible to many of its 
quondam advocates because of the distrust of 
the countries for one another. The fate of Per- 
sia, the encroachments on China, the violation 
of Belgian neutrality, all stand as warnings 
against defenselessness. The ultimate barbar- 
ity of human nature has revealed itself in all 
sorts of brutalities. The pacificist, indeed, con- 
tinues to build his house of hope on the shift- 
ing sands of fancy, instead of on the solid rock 
of human experience. But the rest of the world 
stands disillusioned. 

Nevertheless, in the inevitable reaction that 
must follow the definite ending of the war, the 
demand for a realization of the ideals of uni- 
versal peace and the brotherhood of man will 
surely rise again. Toward such realization the 
school can do much; for there are possibilities 
inherent in education, for hastening the course 
of human evolution, of which society in general 
has not yet dreamed. Through the school the 
nations can be sympathetically interpreted to 
one another. Dreams like that of Cecil Rhodes 
can be realized on a larger scale by extensive 
^'xchange of teachers and of students. These 
teachers and students can carry with them the 

257 



PATRIOTS IN Ti.E MAKING 

message of their own countries, and, returning 
home, leaven their fellow-citizens with the civ- 
ilization of the lands in which they have so- 
journed. Furthermore, the rising generations 
can be familiarized with the ideal of arbitra- 
tion, can be taught the virtue of national self- 
restraint, can be led to respect the Hague Tri- 
bunal, and to look to it for the solution of ques- 
tions which in our era lead to war. They can 
be brought to see why an international league 
to enforce peace is desirable for the security of 
the world. Patriotism can be taught at the 
same time, for patriotism and cosmopolitanism 
are by no means irreconcilable. Through such 
humanitarian teachings the great states of the 
world can be led to understand one another, 
can be made to forget racial antagonisms and 
distrusts, and can learn to give true allegiance 
to the dictum of Goethe, '* Above the nations is 
humanity. '^ As the school of yesterday and 
today has fertilized the soil from which have 
sprung national suspicions and hatreds, so may 
the school of tomorrow usher in the era of the 
brotherhood of man, of universal peace ! 



APPENDIX I 

THE MILITARY VALUE OP A PSYCHOLOGY 
OF PATRIOTISM 

From R. M. Johnston, ''Arms and the Race/' 
pp. 77-79 

It was quite evident to honest German investiga- 
tors that under modem conditions of intensified fire, 
shorter training, and looser tactics, their infantry 
tended to dissolve into a mob. And mobs inevitably 
are less inclined to face trouble than to escape it. 
Evidently the greatest efforts must be made to obtain 
infantry leading highly trained in maintaining co- 
hesion, continuous advance, proper direction, and the 
best tactical shock. But with whatever pains this 
difficult standard might be pursued, there would still 
be the flinching of the indi\'idual soldier to overcome, 
an almost insuperable difficulty, as the experience of 
1870 seemed to show. **The only things," wrote 
Ilonig, *'that can furnish a substitute for the lowered 
action of the leaders on the masses are a more de- 
veloped sentiment . . . and the national principle of 
honor. ... If a national injury to honor, or to terri- 
tory, and so forth, were felt in equal degree by each 
individual, . . . causing him to require satisfaction 

259 



PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING 



and to pledge from his innermost sentiments body 
and life for this, then Tactics would have an easy 
game to play. . . . IMahomet was the type of an army 
psychologist. ... In war that which is highest must 
be sought in the soul . . . and the fighting method 
must correspond to it, must be national. . . . Nations 
which desire to gain something . . . will as a rule 
possess in their armies more operative imponderables 
(trans, freely: rooted prejudices) than others do . . . 
that merely desire to hold, that is to protect their 
property, their position among the nations.'*^ 

This idea, tha tthe nation must be fanaticized, for 
this is what it amounts to, was the cry of despair of 
the tactician at the ineffectiveness of modern infantry 
for getting a decision by shock. It was largely acted 
on in Germany during tlie period preceding the war 
of 1914, and reenforced the previous acceptance by 
the intellectuals of the Bismarckian doctrine of blood 
and iron. The nation was trained to think in artificial 
terms, all tending to fanaticize the rank and file and 
thereby to increase efficiency. 

^Honig: Tactics of the Future, 4th Edition, Part II, 
Sections 1, 3 and 4, 



i 



APPENDIX II 

A DAY'S WORK IN THE SWISS ARMY 

Prom a Report on ''The Swiss Military Organiza- 
tion," BY Capt. T. B. Mott, Quoted in Senate 
Document No. 796, 63d Congress, 3d Session, 
pp. 138-139. 

To show the way the Swiss map out a day's work, 
I will give a short account of 24 hours I spent with 
a class of recruits and a cadre school. The morning 
exercises went on as usual. At 2 p. m. the senior 
Cavalry instructor (commanding a brigade) assem- 
bled the 20 or 30 lieutenants who were present as 
assistants in a course for candidate corporals. The 
same was done for the infantry (a recruit coui'se was 
on). The candidates made up the troopers of two 
squadrons, the young officers commanding. In the 
lecture room of the barracks the theme was given out 
and the assignments made, the brigadier explaining 
first in German and then in French what it was pro- 
posed to do, and gave his ideas. The officers took notes 
with maps in front of them. Two assistant instruc- 
tors, captains, were present. They then mounted and 
took their squadrons some 6 miles out and posted 
them, covering a debarkation in rear and feeling for 
an enemy expected from the north. This constituted 

261 



PATEIOTS IN THE MAKING 

the left of the line. The right was made up of the 
battalion of infantry recruits (they had been under 
instruction three weeks). The enemy was composed 
of four bicycle companies ordered from another gar- 
rison to move toward Berne. 

About 6 p. m. I rode out with the brigade com- 
mander, who inspected the posts. I was greatly struck 
with his painstaking way of questioning, not only 
each chief of post but most of the privates. What 
will you do in such and such a case? Where is the 
next post? Who commands it? Where does this 
road lead to? Wliere is the captain to be found? 
Most of the replies were intelligent, and showed that 
during the afternoon the young officers had gone 
over the case with every man. Each soldier had a 
good map. We got supper at 9 o'clock and had a 
little sleep. At 2 :30 a. m. we started out to make 
the rounds. In front of each post the sentries, well 
hidden, were on the alert, and upon being ordered to 
fire a shot the post came out at once. At daybreak 
the squadrons were united and then patrols sent on 
the various roads to look for the enemy, push him 
back, and see what was behind. By 7 o'clock the 
maneuver was over. 

The young officers were then united and the chief 
instructor criticized, in a lucid and interesting talk, 
the little operation, the mistakes each man had made, 
what was done right, etc., etc. The cavalry then 
rode home and after lunch went to work as though 
they had spent the night in bed. The infantry (re- 
cruits) marched directly to the skirmish range and 
had skirmish firing till noon, then marched to bar- 

262 



APPENDIX 

racks 4 miles for a few hours' rest before resuming 
afternoon drills. 

Now, these recruits had been out since 2 p. m. 
the day before, had supped on a cake of compressed 
soup and a piece of bread (I examined their rations) ; 
they were on outpost all night and had precious 
little sleep ; by 4 a. m. they were out maneuvering 
after breakfast composed of a piece of bread and a 
glass of milk (we all had the same) ; the maneuver 
over at 8, the}^ put in 4 hours' marching and target 
practice; then in the late afternoon more drills. 
This schedule is, I believe, typical. I am much on 
my guard against programs prepared for foreign 
inspection; but, after seeing a great deal of this 
Swiss training, I can only say it is the most intense, 
the most fiercely practical work I have ever seen. The 
instructors do not spare themselves and for them it 
is a continuous affair. One of the assistant instruc- 
tors told me very seriously that except for a month's 
leave he could honestly say he had during the entire 
year just time enough each day to read the news- 
papers. 

The officers only get hold of these men for 6 or 
8 weeks at a stretch, but they work them unceas- 
ingly all of that time. There is so much to learn, 
there is so much that is new every day, and over new 
ground, that the interest really does not flag. There 
is plenty of mental and physical fatigue, but there 
is no ennui. 

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